Gray Skys

Pacificorp broadcasts a commitment to green power but the reality is that 58% of their energy comes from coal powered plants ..... a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

 What they say:
"To reduce environmental impacts, we address wildlife protection, wetlands preservation, reducing hydroelectric facilities’ impact on fish, plant relicensing, and bird interactions with power lines and wind turbines. We also use land reclamation techniques to restore habitat after completing mining operations."

What they do:

Coal Consumption is increasing

Coal consumption is increasing and greenhouse gases are increasing. We should be worried. The Oregonian newspaper published this diagram on September 9 2010.

lookupchat: Beware of Green Washing

lookupchat: Beware of Green Washing

Yes, so true. Remember that PacifiCorp with its Blue Sky campaign
gets most of its power from coal power plants.

Beware of Green Washing

Clean Coal a marketing myth .... check out the Beehive Collective

Coal Power - Alphabet Soup

 

 CO₂  Carbon Dioxide - causes global climate change

SO₂ Sulfur Dioxide – contributes to acid rain, impairs visibility, linked to low birth rates and             respiratory illnesses

NO₂  Nitrogen Oxides– depletes the ozone layer, increases smog & acid rain, NO₂ in the             water leads to fish kills and algae blooms

 Hg Mercury – powerful human neurotoxin that is linked to retardation, cerebral palsy,

            deafness, blindness and autism

CO  Carbon Monoxide – toxic to the development of fetuses and children and can cause             shortness of breath and chest pain in people with heart disease

Clean Coal is an oxymoron

This are just a few of the pollutants in the fumes of the Boardman Coal Plant. This image may be reference another time but the problem is here, now and real.

We share a sky that does not recognize national borders and therefore we share both its beauty and its corruption.

This is a series of woodcuts that grew out of my outrage at a local green washing campaign sponsored by Portland General Electric. PGE has a media campaign that extols their wind power and green energy while in realty, wind is only a small percentage of the electricity is generated and 40% is comes from a coal plant, Boardman. This antiquated plant was grandfathered in before the Clean Air Act and produces an astonishing array of pollutants that create a haze that hovers over the Columbia River. A miasma containing unsafe levels of mercury, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and tons of particulate matter is continually released contributing to global warming and public health concerns.

Boardman is not just an individual power plant, it is also a symbol of the national and international implications of coal power. Cheap energy is often very expensive.