Policy Solutions: Fact Sheets

All Fact Sheets Tagged coal

Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Destroys Communities

Fact Sheet

Mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining is one of the world’s most destructive practices for extracting fossil fuels. This extreme method of strip mining is scarring the landscape and threatening communities. All across Central Appalachia -- between the hollows of West Virginia, bordering the Blue Ridge of Virginia, beyond the bluegrass of Kentucky, and above the smoky vistas of Tennessee -- companies are tearing down mountains to access the coal below. In the process they are clear-cutting miles of forests, filling the rivers with coal mining waste, polluting the waters with toxic runoff, and sacrificing the safety of the people who call this region home. MTR coal mining sites, which can exceed 10 square miles, have already leveled more than 500 summits so far. Get document in pdf.

Limit to Producing "Cheap" Coal Makes Liquid Coal Plans Unworkable

Fact Sheet

While the coal industry has been aggressively promoting the development of a large liquid coal industry in the United States, it is unrealistic to expect that customers could be supplied with domestic coal at reasonable prices. According to the most recent Energy Information Administration Annual Energy Outlook report, if the liquid coal industry grew to the size proposed by industry lobbyists, the United States would have to import coal beginning in just six years. The increased demand created by a liquid coal industry could raise electricity rates as well as increase emissions of global warming pollution, bringing costs that far outweigh the benefits that would come from a large domestic liquid coal industry. Get document in pdf.

There Is No Such Thing as "Clean Coal"
Coal Mining Can Have Disastrous Impacts on Human Health and the Environment

Fact Sheet

Coal mining has serious impacts on our health and the environment. Clean energy options such as energy efficiency can meet energy demands without the dangerous effects of coal. Get document in pdf.

Dangerous Disposals
Keeping Coal Combustion Waste Out of Our Water Supply

Fact Sheet

Coal combustion waste released as pollution by power plants can make drinking water in nearby communities unsafe. Stronger protections are needed to regulate this waste, and to ensure that more polluting power plants are not needed. Get document in pdf.

"Emissions Intensity" -- Pollution by Any Other Name?
Why emissions keep growing under the Bush administration plan.

Fact Sheet

The Bush administration's voluntary approach to global warming focuses on reducing emissions intensity -- the ratio of carbon dioxide to a measure of economic output. But under the administration's plan, even as emissions intensity improves, total emissions will keep on rising. To combat global warming effectively, the government must focus its policy on reducing the total amount of heat-trapping pollution in the atmosphere.

Voluntary Efforts Won't Work
Why we need mandatory limits on carbon dioxide.

Fact Sheet

The federal government has for years tried to curb global warming pollution by asking corporate polluters to voluntarily cut emissions. The evidence is in -- voluntary emissions cuts are not sufficient. Too few companies take part in these initiatives; even power companies -- the leading participants -- mostly consent only to business-as-usual actions that make no real impact on rising emissions trends. Only binding limits on global warming pollution will create the market structure needed to push competitive businesses beyond the cosmetic and into taking meaningful steps to reduce global warming pollution.