- MU Plans Future of Energy - Video Transcript -
For the past two years, the student group Coal Free Mizzou has been asking the university to cease using coal in its power plant.
The group cites environmental and health concerns as the primary motivations to eliminate coal use.
But the student group isn’t alone.
“Everything that I’ve seen from my perspective points to Mizzou being very willing to get off of coal but unsure of how to go about that.” - Ben Datema, Student Sustainability Coordinator
MU has established a Climate Action Plan to eventually become carbon neutral. For now, goals of the plan include:
· Reducing carbon emissions by twenty percent between two thousand eight and two thousand fifteen.
· Increasing use of biomass, natural gas, and renewable energy as availability and funds allow.
· investigating new technologies as they become available.
· Increasing production efficiency when economically feasible.
“It’s not possible to predict the future. Our commitment is to become carbon-neutral. So, instead of picking some artificial date that we don’t know whether we’ll be able to meet or not, we’ve just committed to doing it as fast as we can.” - Steve Burdic, Sustainability Coordinator
As part of that effort, MU is installing a biomass boiler at its power facility. Implementation of the technology will have a noticeable impact on emissions and the amount of coal consumed.
“Within a year ... we anticipate displacing 25% of the coal consumption.” - Gregg Coffin, Power Plant Superintendent
in addition to the biomass boiler, the facility is also working on solar technology and a demonstration wind turbine. All of these projects are expected to be functioning by the fall of two thousand twelve.
Sammie Hill with Cole Karr, J2150F News, Columbia
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- AUDIO: Power Plant Compliant With Health Regulations - Transcript -
Amy: The use of coal as a power source raises concerns for the health of people in and around the power plant. Ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr. A.L. Barrier clears up why this is potentially an issue.
Dr. A.L. Barrier: Well it’s the dust of the coal and anytime you get carbon, which is what coal is, being breathed into the lungs, it irritates the lungs and can cause respiratory issues.
Amy: And there isn’t an easy way to treat those respiratory issues once they’re there.
Dr. A.L. Barrier: Basically have to get out of the environment because they don’t want to get more stimulus to the lungs.
Amy: Ben Datema, student sustainability advisor at Mizzou gives his thoughts on the health concerns coal causes.
Ben Datema: Extremely difficult to remove all the other potential environmental and genetic factors and make a direct link between coal burning and asthma.
Amy: There are regulations regarding cleanliness and emissions that must be met in order to keep the power plant up and running. Greg Coffin, superintendent of Mizzou’s power plant explains.
Greg Coffin: We’re at full compliant with all our regulations, environmental regulations both state and federal regulations. In fact we meet and exceed in most of them we exceed in many cases.
Amy: With that said, Datema along with the university knows that progress is necessary for our plant to remain clean and move forward.
Ben Datema: It’s a big issue and it’s going to take a while to figure out the solution to this. It’s going to take a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of creativity I think to figure out where Mizzou will go next.
Amy: The university signed a contract in 2009 to move toward a carbon neutral campus. The school has since been working on obtaining that goal. Amy Willsey, J2150F News, Columbia.
