Photo courtesy of Ohio Citizen Action
Duke Energy has announced that the Miami Fort coal plant will shut down one of three boilers on January 1, 2015, less than three weeks after the company’s decision to shut down the Beckjord coal plant.
Citing upcoming environmental regulations, Duke Energy made public during its second quarter earnings call its plans to shut down the boiler. The plant is located in North Bend, Ohio, about 16 miles west of Cincinnati, and consists of 3 coal-fired boilers. Boiler 6 came online in 1960 and has no pollution controls known as “scrubbers.”
Duke Energy’s decision to shut down this dirty coal boiler is a step in the right direction but it simply does not go far enough. Units 7 and 8, which combined put out nearly 8 million tons of carbon pollution, 2400 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 7000 tons of sulfur dioxide each year are still poisoning our air every day. The only way to ensure the health and safety of Cincinnatians is to shut this plant down immediately.
This news is surely a relief to the estimated 3,280 people who suffer from asthma attacks every year due to pollution from the Miami Fort and Beckjord Coal plants. But why do we have to wait until 2015 for these people to enjoy a hike up Shawnee Lookout or a canoe at Paddlefest with out suffering from our poor air quality? I, for one, am sick of the all-too-common summer smog alerts in Cincinnati. We deserve clean air now.
Visit the new Quit Coal website to discuss with others how we can work together to shut down these plants now and fight back against dirty coal.