Environmental Terrorism

On a hot summer day in Middleboro, you can stand in an open field and see the haze, air pollution, ozone. Call it what you will, you can't breath. The cloud just sits there because of the topography and well, it just might have something to do with some dirty power plants.

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Even if you never had breathing problems before, welcome to Middleboro's poor air quality.

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There are no state statistics available that I've been able to find that indicate that air quality is being monitored locally, but on the hot, muggy days, you don't need statistics to tell you there's a problem.

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Doesn't Brayton Point, operated by Dominion Energy NUGs burn DIRTY COAL?

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Brayton Point (zip 02725) has 95,000 TONS OF COAL ASH.

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If I got my zeroes right, that's

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190,000,000 POUNDS

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Doesn't Somerset Station operated by NRG Energy burn DIRTY COAL?

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Somerset Station (zip 02726) has 30,050 TONS OF COAL ASH.

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If I got my zeroes right, that's

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60,100,000 POUNDS

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[Salem Harbor zip 01970 has 70,400 TONS OF COAL ASH.]

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If I got my zeroes right, that's

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140,800,00 POUNDS

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[West Springfield zip 01089 has 20,000 TONS OF COAL ASH]

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If I got my zeroes right, that's

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40,000,000 POUNDS

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[ Mount Tom Zip 01040 has 36,700 TONS OF COAL ASH]

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If I got my zeroes right, that's

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75,200,000 POUNDS

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Maybe Massachusetts isn't the pristine environment we pretend.

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On the left side of IloveMountains, there's a map that allows you to enter a zip code and view the DIRTY COAL power plants that fill your air and your lungs.

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The Center for Public Integrity has provided a similar map for DIRTY COAL ASH.

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Those maps only provides the DIRTY COAL plants and do not include others like the DIRTY Canal plant operated by Mirant. That's the plant you paid $350 MILLION to keep going for 4 years. Such a deal!

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That's the reason the lack of interest by the Middleboro Board of Selectmen to locating yet another DIRTY POWER PLANT in Brockton is incomprehensible. [It can burn diesel. The water to be used for cooling will be wastewater.] But I digress.

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Six states have introduced legislation to ban the use of coal from MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL --

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...a bill introduced into the state legislature this week aims to end North Carolina utilities' use of coal from mountaintop removal operations. Similar legislation has also been introduced in Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina and Tennessee.

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It's a beginning.

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There's more to the story of DIRTY COAL, MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL --

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North Carolina is currently the second-largest consumer of mountaintop removal-mined coal in the nation after Georgia. Thirty percent of the state's electricity is generated from the burning of such coal, whose extraction has permanently destroyed more than 470 Appalachian peaks and damaged more than 1,200 miles of headwater streams.

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There is air pollution that isn't regulated or tested. There are overcharges. ISS -

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Appalachian coal is already some of the most expensive in the world, selling for $70 to $140 per ton over the past six months compared to $12 to $14 per ton for coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

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Last year, Raleigh, N.C.-based Progress Energy raised their rates by 16 percent almost entirely as a result of the rising price of Central Appalachian coal. And in 2007, the company was accused of "failures of management" and required to return $13.8 million to its Florida ratepayers for continuing to use expensive Appalachian coal rather than switching to lower-cost western coal, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

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Coal Ash: Dirty Coal's Dirty Little Secret included information about COAL ASH.

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It's time to move in a positive direction, reduce our consumption, make smart choices and phase out DIRTY COAL so we all can breath.