# Manistee - Coal plant has some fired up



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Coal plant has some fired up 
Environment vs. economy being considered 

MANISTEE - Fred LaPoint doesn't want a new power plant in the city - not across from his house on Main Street and not on the shores of Manistee Lake.

http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/jan/03coal.htm


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

I was thinking of the scenery of fishing in Manistee Lake when I posted the original article, but maybe it should have been over in the soundoff forum.

This appeared in the Letter to Benzie Patriot:

Dear Editor,

Manistee lies roughly 30 miles south of Benzie County. Already a heavily developed industrial county, the Tondu Corporation is proposing a new coal burning plant on the shores of Lake Manistee. Their original plan was to build the plant in neighboring Filer Township, but officials there had the foresight and intelligence to say no, sighting that the economic benefits did not outweigh the environmental consequences. 

The proposed 425-megawatt plant would burn almost 2 million tons of coal per year, brought in on 13 ships per month, and would generate 450 tons of ash daily. Emissions would include nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, airborne lead, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and mercury---causing smog, acid rain, asthma, learning disabilities, heart and lung disease, and further contaminating our fish and water. 

The Tondu Corporation says they will build a 400ft. smokestack on the plant so that the emissions will not affect the people or environment of Manistee County, but will allow emissions to float north. Were north. Several days very summer Benzie County is under an ozone alert watch. We assume that its due to all the smog, acid rain and greenhouse gases that are descending upon us from places like Chicago or Milwaukee. Maybe we better start looking a little closer to home. 

Manistee Citizens for Responsible Development is leading the fight to prevent the plant from being built. They meet weekly in Manistee.

The Traverse Group of the Sierra Club has passed a resolution to oppose the Tondu Corporations coal burning plant. We urge the citizens of Benzie County to learn more and get involved, because if you think a new coal plant in Manistee County wont affect Benzie, think again.

You can learn more at www.michigan.sierraclub.org/traverse or by visiting www.manisteecfrd.org.

Monica Evans, Chair
Traverse Group of the Sierra Club
3840 Blueberry Lane
Honor, Michigan 49640
231-325-6812


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## Beave (Aug 26, 2002)

Everyone wants to be able to plug 100 different appliances in and have them work. Computers, TV's, electric dryers, lights, air conditioners, etc.

Yet they all want the power plants somewhere else. Where are we supposed to put them?

I'm not saying I want a power plant by me either, but I'm reasonable enough to realize that I today probably own 2X the electricity using devices my parents had in their home when I was born 25 years ago. 

And the answer is what people fear the most. The cleanest and most efficient form of energy generation, nuke plants, are actually being converted to coal and natural gas energy conversion because people complain so much. People complain, they elect representatives who make it their mission to get rid of the plants, and it eventually happens.

We need to keep our power production levels up or we're going to have more blackouts like Detroit and the East Coast had last year, more blackouts like California had a few years ago.

Sometimes the general public are too stupid for their own good. It's why a lot of environmentalist arguments sound really good until you ask what the alternative is. A lot of the sierraclub, greenpeace, and PETA types think we should all be riding our bikes to school or driving solar cars. They don't have an alternative, they just don't like how things are. To me, that's just mindless complaining. What if we put regulators outside everyone's houses and didn't allow them to draw more than 100 amps at any given time? (Most of us have 200 amp services.)

How many people would be complaining then when they browned out every time their refrigerator compressor kicked on at the same time they were watching TV?

Show me a good proposal for how to generate the needed power by putting the plant some place else and I'd be all for it.


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## TC-fisherman (Feb 15, 2003)

> Sometimes the general public are too stupid for their own good.


So basically its only stupid people who don't want to increase their chances of cancer, birth defects etc, increase mercury going into fish in the manistee river and lake michigan.

It bad enough we have pollution alerts up here during the summer from all the crap blowing up from indiana and illinois. Why not trash all of northern michigan. Make it just like gary indiana. There are too many places left that aren't polluted and developed. Lets get rid of them! 

I guess if the plant is built and in a few years cancer rates and birth defects go up, and the dnr comes out with an advisory saying if you eat more than one fish a year its unhealthy cause of the mercury levels "those sierra club types" can say we told you so.
But by then what could you do?

Yeah we need power. How about NG plants which are cleaner and there's already nat gas available in N. Mi. 

Coal plants are the worst available option. Repeat. Coal plants are the worst available option. Take the time to read up on the effects of a coal plant and then say its a good idea.

BTW, the blackout last summer was caused by problems with the transmission lines, not from a lack of power plants.


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## Beave (Aug 26, 2002)

Fine, then propose a NG plant there. What I'm saying is that people will complain about that too. I'm not saying coal is the way to go, simply that people are very dependant on power but aren't willing to accept changes to their way of life. That means either more plants or less power consumption. They want neither.


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