Purdue U. Poised to Kill Plans for $53-Million Coal Plant

Students hired by the coal industry picket for “clean coal” at Purdue U. in September. The Board of Trustees decided that coal was not clean enough. (Flickr photo by americaspower)

Purdue University’s Board of Trustees has killed plans for a $53-million coal-fired power plant, according to local reports. The board was concerned about the regulatory burdens and environmental impact of such a facility. The university will probably switch to natural gas.

“It came down the economics,” Robert E. McMains, vice president for facilities, told The Chronicle. He said the university had looked at the possibility of burning natural gas in the early 2000′s and concluded that the fuel was too expensive relative to coal.

But with new regulations on coal burning and ash coming from the federal government, the return on investment for a coal plant got longer and longer.

“We rechecked the assumptions that we had made,” he said. “Whatever the regulatory requirements become for coal burning and ash disposal, that would have all cost us money. … The savings would have been nonexistent for coal.”

Pennsylvania State University recently decided to abandon coal for similar reasons, despite deep ties to coal interests in that state, including longtime support of coal research. Purdue is also in a coal state and has supported research into so-called “clean coal” technology, which environmentalists say is an oxymoron.

According to Indiana law, Mr. McMains said, Purdue is required to get its coal from within the state. But “we’re not here for any one constituency. We are here for the whole and the betterment of the taxpayers of Indiana. If we can operate and save a couple million dollars a year, plus not have the big investment [in the coal plant], that saves all the taxpayers money.”

Many institutions are being pressured by environmental organizations and activist students to give up the use of coal as an energy source. The Sierra Club was quick to claim victory in Purdue’s decision. “Thanks in part to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, in the last two years no new coal plants have started construction, and the industry has announced the phaseout of over 50 plants,” said a statement from the organization.

“Purdue was the only university in the country planning to build a new coal plant,” the environmental group’s statement continued. “At the same time, nearly a dozen other schools have committed to ending their dependence on campus coal plants by switching to cleaner sources of energy.”