St. Louis Right Next To Nation's Third Dirtiest Coal Plant

Think Progress put out a report yesterday listing the 25 Dirtiest Power Plants in the United States, based on the amount of mercury emissions. The plant in Labadie, MO, released 1,297 lbs in 2009, third highest in the country according to the post. The report goes on to note the following:

So do these plants at least provide an equally high amount of energy? No. According to EDF, while these plants represent one third of mercury emissions, they only provide about 8% of electricity generation.

The harm from coal, if it were actually added to the cost of their power, would make these plants uneconomic, as Climate Progress detailed in February (see Life-cycle study: Accounting for total harm from coal would add “close to 17.8¢/kWh of electricity generated”).

By the way, Labadie is also where Ameren is trying to build a coal ash landfill full of toxic chemicals in the floodplain of the Missouri River. You can learn how to get involved by going here.

h/t to Joe Mohr at Green Cartoons (another great St. Louis talent).

National Coal Council Cancels Meeting Because of Wash U Student Protesters

Wow, this is a pretty cool story from StudLife:

A National Coal Council meeting in downtown St. Louis was canceled following a protest from Washington University Green Action.

Directly after council members had finished taking roll call on Tuesday, students from Green Action and Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment entered the meeting at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark. The students unfurled a banner proclaiming, “Coal is never clean” and sang, “Clean coal is a dirty lie.”

“Clean coal doesn’t exist, and we’re opposed to the lie that there’s any way to use coal safely without hurting communities,” said Green Action member Harry Alper, a senior.

The group was escorted from the hotel by two officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The Hilton’s head of security had not yet arrived at the event.

According to Officer Mana, the situation was “no big deal,” and students were polite and peaceful as they left the building.

According to the article, they decided to cancel the meeting, but still stuck around to eat their private lunches. So why have a meeting in the first place? Oh yeah, because they have money to burn.

Read the whole thing.