Reader’s View: Lignite Coal Can Help Meet Carbon Goals

Via The Duluth News Tribune:

I recall in 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigned on clean coal to get elected. I believe lignite coal is just that: clean coal. (This is in reference to the “Statewide View” column in the March 29 News Tribune, headlined, “Lignite coal can help meet carbon-free goals.”)

In 2015, my husband and I went on a tour of Coal Creek in North Dakota via an annual tour bus Lake Country Power invites co-op members to take. We visited the Falkirk Mine near Bismarck, N.D., where 8 million tons of lignite coal is mined yearly to supply Coal Creek Station, the largest power plant in North Dakota.

Everyone has the belief that coal-powered plants are dirty. We toured the Coal Creek Station. It was surprisingly clean inside and outside. As was noted in the column, lignite coal can help meet carbon-free goals. With our nation’s abundance of coal, lignite coal plants are a reliable, clean, and affordable energy source. In North Dakota’s case, they’re earth-friendly.

Nancy McReady

Ely

See the article here.

  • On April 15, 2019