Penn State (finally) to Stop Burning Coal on Campus!

In a big win for the Campuses Beyond Coal campaign in Pennsylvania Penn State's Board of Trustees finally and officially approved plans to convert the university's more than 80-year-old steam plant off coal. 

Several months ago university officials requested funding for the transition to natural gas, but still wouldn't commit publicly to switch fuel sources in order to avoid costly upgrades the plant would need to meet forthcoming EPA regulations on polluting facilities. 

The plant, which sits right in the middle of campus, produces steam heat for 270 buildings on campus.  The university says the switch will lower carbon emissions by 37 percent - an important step in their overall goal of reducing emissions 17.5 percent below 2005-06 levels by next year.

Over the past year and a half students collected more than 2000 petition signatures and photos, generated dozens of media hits, hosted rallies, built coalitions with faculty and alumni and held several meetings with top administrators demanding the university end their use of dangerous and dirty coal on their campus.  Then, when students learned the school was considering installing expensive coal scrubbers to meet new regulations their efforts became even more urgent as the expense of adding scrubbers would have locked the school into coal dependence for years to come.

The transition to natural gas, which the university expects to be complete by 2014, is ideally only an interim step towards becoming a 100% clean energy campus.  Eventually, students hope to see the university run entirely on renewable energy - including both the energy they produce on campus and the power they purchase from the electricity grid. 

The Beyond Coal campaign at Penn State launched more than a year ago in fall 2009 and follows a strong history of student activism on energy issues at the school.  Previous student efforts led to the university's first-ever emissions reductions commitments and major sustainability projects including the third largest green power purchase of any university in the country, multi-million dollar investments in efficiency for existing buildings and a pledge to make all new buildings LEED-certified.

This commitment makes them the ninth university to pledge to end their coal use on campus since the Sierra Student Coalition started the national effort to move our nation's universities entirely of coal-generated power.  It falls on the heels of Missouri University of Science and Technology which recently announced their plans to move off coal in favor of a renewable geothermal energy system.  

Comments

[Gary Fields]

Keep on fracking to supply that natural gas!

[Paul Warrender]

Yeah Gary....just make sure the fracking stays in Pennsylvania!

[Kim Teplitzky]

This move away from coal is a big step for Penn State - especially given the decision they are facing to either install scrubbers that would have locked them into a dependence on coal for another decade or to try something else. Switching to gas gets them off an incredibly dirty source of energy, but also leaves them with the flexibility to change again. Unconventional drilling for natural gas, or hydraulic fracturing, is a real problem for many communities in Pennsylvania posing threats to our air, water and land - which is why we need Penn State to also ramp up their investments in efficiency and clean energy technology to be able to transition off all fossil fuels to 100% clean energy as quickly as possible. This is a step in the right direction, but certainly not the end of our work there.

[Joe DeVito]

Yeah natural gas is "cleaner" than coal but this was still the wrong move. Penn State had the chance to set the standard in our country by building a renewable energy power plant. Sadly, Penn State instead jumped on the fracking band wagon and is now taking a larger part in the destruction of Pennsylvania's environment.

[marshall dietz]

Great News at Penn state and Missouri that they could cut their umbilical tie to coal-powered steam.

So WHY did the Sierra Club throw in the towel at UNC-CH without so much as a sniffle? UNC’s co-gen coal plant is as environmental dirty and as destructive to the earth as a smoker! Just because you don’t see the toxic heavy-metal emissions or smell the sulfur laden choking gases doesn’t mean they’re not going out the back door with the calcite slag do be dumped ‘wherever’.

To use coal combustion to generate high-pressure steam is an archaic and dangerous industrial process carried over from the locomotive of yesteryear and must be replaced by efficient natural gas-fired boilers. The campus just built an undersized natural gas steam plant by neglecting to design it for campus-wide service.

To justify utilizing coal-fired electric generation as an ‘efficient’ means to symbiotically create both steam and electricity is only justification for the university to continue to turn a blind-eye and a blank-mind to the inherent contradiction - if Co-gen is such a ‘winner’ why isn’t everyone rushing toward it instead of moving away from it?

[Lisa Scharin]

Hopefully this is a step in the right direction and solar panels will be considered on the roof tops! I hope it isn't TOO late to consider a "mix" of energy sources! How about contacting Solar City in California? They could install the panels.

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