Our Concerns

  • Pollution

    • Air: the plant will emit nearly 750 tons a year of pollutants, including Nitrogen Oxides (Ozone), Sulfur Dioxide, and Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPS)

    • Water: runoff from the plant will feed directly into Pigeon Creek

    • Ground: Naphtha and Hydrogen sulfide, volatile and lethal chemicals will be produced and stored on-site

    • Noise: 100 railcars a day carrying coal and innumerable large trucks carrying chemicals into and out of the plant

    • Dust: four 100 foot tall stacks of coal left open to the wind

    • Global warming: the fuel it produces releases twice as much carbon dioxide as conventional diesel and the plant will emit 2.2 million tons of CO2 yearly

  • Proximity to town

    • 1 mile from the local elementary school, nursing home, and town center

    • Increased risks of preterm birth, infant mortality, deficits in lung growth, respiratory symptoms, asthma exacerbations, and asthma hospitalizations in town residents and their children

  • Effects on tourism

    • Sulfur produced will have a strong odor

    • Increased trucks and trains will cause traffic through and around town

    • The plant itself will be an eyesore

    • Light from the flares will blaze into the night

  • Decreased property values

    • For properties around the plant and those who will have the water and wastewater pipes built on their properties

  • It will burden our resources

    • 1.8 million gallons of water a day

    • Large amounts of electricity or natural gas to run the plant

  • This technology is highly controversial

    • No plant of its kind has ever been built in the US

    • All other similar plants have either been stopped before breaking ground or have been stopped mid-construction, leaving investors in debt and a mess for the local community to clean up

  • It is not economically sound

    • Due to the expense in making this fuel, it is not profitable unless oil prices are over $100 a barrel. Today, the price of oil is around $60 a barrel

  • Poor reputation

    • KBR has had several lawsuits for dishonest practices. Notably, they knowingly exposed Tell City National Guard soldiers to harmful levels of chromium, resulting in the deaths of two American heroes

    • Riverview Energy attempted to build a similar facility in Vermillion County, but after 4 years the local authority backed out

  • It is not feasible in the long-term

    • Laws regulating carbon may make these fuels economically nonviable, resulting in plant closure, unemployment, and a toxic waste site

Sources

  • https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/02/clean-coal-america-kemper-power-plant

  • https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-ctl/china-builds-plant-to-turn-coal-into-barrels-of-oil-idUSSP13361320080604

  • http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/114/6/1699

  • https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/feb/20/china.ctl

  • https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060013819

  • https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-isenberg/kbr-private-military-canc_b_609247.html?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006