Salem Power Plant :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Salem Harbor power plant is a serious threat to the public health – and it may only get worse. There is a severe concern about toxic air emissions from the prior waste disposal practices. That is why Bush’s energy plan doesn’t quite work? In the Salem Evening News it says that, â€Å"The Bush plan only pays lip service to the threat of global warming, the greatest environmental danger of our time.† (Kert Davies) The Bush plan may of solved the threat of global warming, but in reality Pollution from oil- and coal-burning power plants kills more people in Massachusetts every year than homicides and drunken driving combined. Why should the public be harmed every time they decide to take a jog around the block? People are dying each year due to the Salem Harbor power plant. â€Å"The activists planted crosses to symbolize the deaths caused by the mining and burning of coal made, making the point that the Bush plan is over reliant on coal, a dirty energy source.† (Davies) Not only does the Salem Harbor power plant kill people each year but other plants such as; â€Å"Brayton Point in Somerset; Canal Station in Sandwich; Mystic Station in Everett; Mt. Tom Station in Holyoke; and Somerset Station in Somerset† (Davies) kill people too. The real factor that kills the people is the coal. It may not seem it but â€Å"coal kills the people who mine it, and when corporate polluters burn it – coal destroys our air, and shortens lives.† (Davies) So should the general public be harmed everyday when they decide to go for a jog in the morning? What can be done to prevent coal from being used? There are enough new gas-fired power plants under construction to supply nearly half of New England’s peak demand. â€Å"Two new gas pipelines are now operational, adding enough natural gas supply to New England to power all the new plants currently being built.† (Davies) We don’t get our power from a particular power plant, but from the web of power plants and transmission lines across the region called the â€Å"grid.† â€Å"These new plants will come on line over the next one to two years, to compete against the old, dirty units to supply our electric power.† (Davies) So using the gas pipelines is one way to cut down on the coal. How about another way? In fact there