How Major Universities Can Go Coal-Free

by Tara Lohan · 2010-06-04 05:52:00 UTC
Topics:

While most of the country's attention has been focused on 'gusher-gate' in the Gulf and the battle over offshore drilling, the South has scored a victory in the fight against another dirty energy source: coal. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill announced that the school would go coal-free by 2020--great news in a region plagued by environmental destruction from strip mining.

The school's chancellor said he believed that universities should be a key force in driving a transition to cleaner fuels. As YES! Magazine reports, just down the road Duke has cut its coal consumption by 70 percent, and UNC is definitely setting the bar higher. Hopefully they can come through on their pledge and other schools will follow suit.

UNC Chapel Hill currently attributes 60 percent of its emissions to a coal-fired co-generation plant, YES! reports. But after a nine-month task force investigation, they determined that it would be possible to phase in biomass and phase out coal. Now they are aiming to achieve complete independence from coal in a decade.

Biomass power, however, has its drawbacks. Corn, for example, requires intensive agriculture, which drains water and often requires pesticides. Using plant or animal wastes can be a good alternative to growing plants simply to burn them for electricity.

The UNC folks still haven't firmed up a source of their biomass, but are aiming to use wood pellets to begin. My own alma mater, Middlebury College, recently introduced a biomass gasification plant to cut emissions as well. The college has partnered with local sustainable forestry folks to secure their wood chips, and they are hoping to make the school carbon neutral by 2016--an ambitious goal for sure.

At a time when we face so many challenging environmental problems and yet seem to lack national political will to enact effective change, it's heartening to see so much progress at the collegiate level. Hopefully, these and similar actions will help propel change schools across the country--where groups like the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) are already doing some great work with high school students.

Photo credit: em fields

Tara Lohan is a senior editor at AlterNet.org where she heads up the environment, water, and food sections. Her work has appeared on the websites of The Nation, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post and in Yes! Magazine.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Asthmatic Kids Will Breathe Easier Soon
NEXT STORY:
Stopping the Water Grab in Nevada

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.