Cutting down coal

This year has been full of ups and downs for the ASPSU Student Senate. They have been under a lot of scrutiny lately and it looks like they have finally done something right. Recently, the ASPSU Student Senate passed a resolution for Portland General Electric to close its last coal-fired plant by 2014.

During the meeting on April 27, David Nokovic, student leadership liaison for economics at the PSU sustainability leadership center, approached the senate with the resolution. He wanted the senate to join with what many other Oregon Universities have already signed onto. When the senate met on May 4, the resolution was signed.

PSU was the sixth school to sign the resolution, joining other Oregon universities, colleges and high schools including Reed College, Pacific University and Lane Community College.

According to Portland General Electric’s website, the coal plant operates at a variable cost of one-third to one-half of the market rate cost for electricity. It produces 15 percent of Oregon’s energy.

All of those facts may sound good, but the facts show something different. The plant emits carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and mercury, as well as other pollutants caused by the plant.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality found that oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide emissions from the PGE coal plant are contributors to haze and reduced visibility in at least 14 wilderness areas around the Northwest.

The plant also contributes to about 6 percent of Oregon’s total greenhouse gas emissions per year, or 4.3 million metric tons, producing the most greenhouse gas emissions of any major industrial source in the state.

Although coal is a cheaper alternative, it is clear that it is not safe to cut corners in light of the environment and the safety of Oregonians. Obviously PGE has felt the same way with the DEQ’s new quality air standards—they pushed up the closing date of the plant from 2040 to 2020.

According to PGE, with the new plan (titled the “Revised Integrated Resources Plan”), emissions controls would be implemented that would cut mercury by 90 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 50 percent.

Although the plant is not based in Portland, the major consumers live in the Portland area. This issue is something that needs to be known throughout the Portland community, not just because they are the biggest consumers of the coal plant, but because this is affecting the air they breathe. Everyone in the great Northwest and beyond should be aware of this issue because it affects everyone.

This is a great thing that the ASPSU Senate has signed onto because it is something outside of PSU that still promotes the message of sustainability. After all, that is what a representation of the student body, such as ASPSU, is supposed to do.

They are supposed to represent PSU and what PSU itself represents. Portland State is all for sustainability so it is wonderful that ASPSU is doing what the university and its attendees want.

Portland State pushes its students to reach out beyond the hallowed halls of the university and to help a community. And with the ASPSU Student Senate signed onto this resolution of shutting down the coal plant earlier than planned, they are reaching out to not just PSU students, but also to the community that consumes the energy.

Kudos to the ASPSU Student Senate for representing and bringing about this issue—one that the PSU community is in direct involvement with.