The debate over coal has caught on all across the U.S., even reaching into the heartland, and America is beginning to stand up and demand clean energy.
The Des Moines Register’s Perry Beeman lays it out in an informative piece centered on controversies in Iowa, a state that’s also front and center now in the presidential race.
Environmentalists, NASA’s chief climate scientist, industry experts and citizens are lining up to testify about the coal-burning plants, which could affect Iowans’ lungs, power bills, fish-eating habits and ability to find jobs. The debate over whether to build the two Iowa plants is part of a national argument as utilities and a new breed of so-called “merchant generators” have plans for 150 new coal-fired plants. States as different as Kansas, California, Idaho and Florida have blocked new coal-fired plants. Even Texas forced its biggest utility to pare down a proposal for 11 new coal plants to three.
NASA’s chief climate scientist, James Hansen is an Iowa native and graduate of University of Iowa. He is also an outspoken critic of coal, saying “It seems to me that young people, especially, should be doing whatever is necessary to block construction of dirty coal-fired power plants” back in August. He’s provided testimony against the proposed Iowa plants.
In his written testimony, Hansen recalled seeing long train loads of coal near his hometown of Denison, IA recently.
“If we cannot stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains
