Coal Combustion Products Partnership
The Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2) program was a cooperative effort between the U.S. EPA, the American Coal Ash Association, the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Federal Highway Administration and the Electric Power Research Institute to "help promote the beneficial use of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) and the environmental benefits that result from their use."[1]
According to an EPA brochure on the program: "The C2P2 program was designed to help meet the national waste reduction goals of the Resource Conservation Challenge—a U.S. EPA effort to find flexible, yet more protective, ways to conserve valuable natural resources through waste reduction, energy recovery and recycling. Through the C2P2 program, the U.S. EPA and its co-sponsors work with all levels of government, as well as industry organizations, to reduce or eliminate legal, institutional, economic, market, informational and other barriers to the beneficial use of CCPs. Specifically, C2P2 aims for the following goals: Reduce adverse effects on air and land by increasing the use of coal combustion products to 50 percent in 2011 from 31 percent in 2001. Increase the use of CCPs as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete by 50 percent, from 12.4 million tons in 2001 to 18.6 million tons in 2011, thereby decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from avoided cement manufacturing by approximately five million tons."
Program suspended
On March 23, 2011, the EPA inspector general released a report stating that the federal government had promoted some uses of coal ash, including wallboard or filler in road embankments, without properly testing the environmental risks. The report said wallboard "may represent a large universe of inappropriate disposal applications with unknown potential for adverse environmental and human health impacts." Coal ash recyclers and manufacturers that use it have argued that tougher federal regulations would place a stigma on the substance and hinder efforts to reuse some of the 130 million tons produced at U.S. coal-fired power plants each year. The C2P2 program was started in 2001 and halted in 2010.[2]
American Coal Ash Association
ACAA is an umbrella lobbying group for all coal ash interests that includes major coal burners Duke Energy, Southern Company and American Electric Power as well as dozens of other companies. The group argues that the so-called "beneficial-use industry" would be eliminated if a "hazardous" designation was given for coal ash waste.[3] ACAA set up a front group called Citizens for Recycling First, which argues that using toxic coal ash as fill in other products is safe.[3]
Resources
References
- ↑ "Coal Combustion Products Partnership" EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge, accessed March 2011.
- ↑ Dylan Lovan, "Report: EPA didn't properly assess coal ash risks" AP, March 24, 2011.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Coal-Fired Utilities to American Public: Kiss my Ash DeSmogBlog.com & PolluterWatch, October 27, 2010.
Related GEM.wiki articles
- American Coal Ash Association
- Citizens for Recycling First
- Fly ash
- TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill
- TVA Widows Creek coal waste spill
- Coal waste
- Coal sludge
- Martin County sludge spill
- Coal slurry impoundment
- Retrofit vs. Phase-Out of Coal-Fired Power Plants
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
- Massey Energy
- Federal coal subsidies
- Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources 2002-2008
- State coal subsidies
- Health effects of coal
- Mercury and coal
- Heavy metals and coal
- Sulfur dioxide and coal
- Environmental impacts of coal
- Air pollution from coal-fired power plants
- United States and coal
External links
- Barbara Gottlieb et al, "Coal Ash: The toxic threat to our health and environment," Physicians for Social Responsibility and Earthjustice, September 2010
- J. Henry Fair, "Coal Ash: The Hidden Menace (PHOTOS)" HuffPo, September 2010
- "Coal Ash: A National Problem Needs a National Solution," Earth Justice fact sheet, January 2009
- "Toxic Ash: A License to Pollute," Post and Courier, October 26-29, 2008.
- Coal Combustion Waste, As You May or May Not Know..., March 27, 2008.
- House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources: Oversight Hearing,"How Should the Federal Government Address the Health and Environmental Risks of Coal Combustion Waste?,"June 10, 2007
- Martha Keating,"Cradle to Grave: The Environmental Impacts from Coal," Clean Air Task Force, June 2001
- Martha Keating, Ellen Baum and Eric Round, "Laid to Waste: The Dirty Secret of Combustion Waste from America's Power Plants," Citizens Coal Council, Hoosier Environmental Council, Clean Air Task Force, March 2000
- Kirstin Lombardi, "Coal ash: The hidden story," Center for Public Integrity, 2/19/09
