How Does Coal Power Affect The Economy

The fundamental economic drive behind almost every efficacious corporation or industry in today’s society is the desire to accumulate wealth.With the United States being a free market economy, it encourages profit-seeking within corporations at any cost unless the company is already reined in by rules and regulations. The blind and ideologically motivated downgrading of the environment in pursuit of economic growth has a hidden cost. Granted that several industries, specifically emphasizing the electric industry, go out of their way to maximize profits and exploit their resources, such as the environment, it supports the claim that “in today’s world, political money is corrupting the environment” (United Republic 2013). Overall, many electric

Coal power plants use “heat produced by burning coal that is used to drive a heat engine, which usually utilizes steam to drive electric turbines” (Vision of Earth), in order to create electricity. Coal power plants are most cost effective, bringing in the most profits to companies, when they are constantly running at full capacity, even though under these circumstances their pollution levels increase drastically and the environment is harmed. The initial startup and shutdown process of massive power plants that are accustomed to running at full force all day produce a significant amount of increased emissions, that for many years went unseen by the government until the EPA initiated the “startup, shutdown” rule, which held electric companies and power plants responsible for their emissions and taxed them for having significantly negative impacts on the environment, according to (Blank Rome LLP, 2014). This can be tied back into the idea that the desire to maximize profit and accumulate wealth within the electric industry has led to the corruption of the environment because it is proven that companies will go out of their way to make even a dollar more at the expense

During the process of combustion within the coal power plants, many oxides of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen are created which results in harsh chemicals being emitted into the air and surrounding ecosystems. “A typical (500 megawatt) coal plant burns 1.4 million tons of coal each year, and as of 2012, there [were] 572 operational coal plants in the U.S. with an average capacity of 547 megawatts” (Union of Concerned Scientist), eluding how distributed the pollution is affecting the entire country. It is important for us as humans to realize that with 572 plants generating 1.4 millions of tons of coal per year, which means approximately an overwhelming 800 million tons of coal are being burned in power plants and emitted into the environment each year, and nothing is being done about it. The burning of coal results in ash, sludge, toxic chemicals, and waste heat that generate never ending environmental problems. “Sulfur dioxide (SO2), contributing to acid rain, nitrogen oxides (NOx), contributing to smog, and particulates, which contribute to both smog and haze” (EIA 2015), are all examples of how the combustion of coal in the electricity generating process has led to irreversible changes in the environment. Without the