Pollution

DM&E’s proposed development of a coal-hauling corridor from Wyoming to the Wisconsin border represents a long-term commitment to fossil fuels, air pollution and global warming. The project ultimately sustains two practices that are damaging to the environment:

Shipping coal by rail. DM&E’s ambitious project is a major investment in a 19th-century delivery system for a 19th-century energy system – exactly what has caused our 21st-century energy problems. Consider these facts:

• Mines in the Powder River Basin produce sub-bituminous coal that is low in energy content - 30 percent fewer BTUs than Appalachian bituminous coal - and high in mercury content.
• About 30 percent of PRB coal’s content is water. Every 100 cars in a coal unit train haul the equivalent of 30 cars filled with water. 
• About 75 percent of all coal shipments in the U.S. are made via railroads.
• As of today, every DM&E coal train would have to go at least as far as Winona, Minn., – a distance of more than 800 miles – to reach the closest accessible power plant that burns PRB coal.
• Coal unit trains are powered by three locomotives, each one burning large volumes of diesel fuel.
• Railroads are one of the nation’s largest sources of soot and smog pollution, which can cause health problems, including respiratory problems and increased risk of asthma attacks. Coal trains also cause soot pollution when coal dust blows off into the surrounding air.
• According to the Federal Railroad Administration, emissions levels from DM&E locomotives would be a problem wherever its coal trains go:
  • At 20 million tons in annual coal volume, emissions would exceed thresholds for nitrogen oxide in four counties along the PRB extension plus seven counties in South Dakota and eight counties in Minnesota along the existing main line.
  • At 50 million tons in annual coal volume, emissions would exceed thresholds for nitrogen oxide in all six counties along the PRB extension plus all counties in South Dakota and Minnesota along the existing line, and for carbon monoxide in one county along the PRB extension.
  • At 100 million tons in annual coal volume, emissions would exceed thresholds for nitrogren oxide in all counties, for carbon monoxide in four counties along the PRB extension and five counties in Minnesota, and for sulfur dioxide in two counties along the PRB extension and one county in Minnesota.

Coal-fired energy. DM&E’s rail extension would facilitate additional coal mining in the Powder River Basin, thus propagating continued use of environmentally costly, coal-fired energy production.

In a 2007 report, “The Dirty Truth About Coal: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future,” the Sierra Club said the pollution from coal-based energy “stretches all the way from the coal mine to long after coal is burned and the electricity has been used in our homes and businesses. Mining and burning coal scars lungs, tears up the land, pollutes water, devastates communities, and makes global warming worse.”

• Coal-fired plants, which provide half of America’s electricity, are a major source of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions and have been linked to global warming.
• DM&E originally planned to haul an estimated 100 million tons of coal to coal-burning power plants every year, which could increase coal usage nationwide by 10 percent and fuel as many as 50 new coal-fired plants. Now DM&E is aiming for 125 million tons per year.
• Burning additional PRB coal would substantially increase carbon dioxide emissions, a known contributor to global warming, as well as mercury, nitrogen oxide and particulate-matter pollution.

A Better Investment in Our Energy Future
DM&E is clinging to dirty, old technology at a time that America needs to develop and adopt clean, new technology. For example, coal gasification converts coal to “syngas,” a fuel that can be distributed via pipeline.

Integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) plants use “clean” technology to outperform coal-fired plants. Burning the gas in a combustion turbine and using the exhaust heat to fuel a steam turbine achieves unprecedented efficiency, and air emissions from IGCC plants are far below U.S. Clean Air standards. The State of Wyoming is already investigating a coal gasification plant that would produce electricity and sequester carbon dioxide.

Now that most developed countries are moving toward restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, it makes no sense for more coal trains to stoke more coal into more coal-fired power plants.