In America, we rely on coal energy for roughly half of our electricity consumption. Americans are more dependent on coal power than any other nation, and according to a report done by the Energy Information Administration in 2006, the US generated more power from coal than any other country, including China. Even in Madison, we rely on the Charter Street coal plant for almost all of our electricity.

However, after reports and a lawsuit claiming that the Charter Street plant violates the Clean Air Act, Wisconsin should focus solely on attempting to reduce the amount of coal used, not increasing it.

That said, Alliant Energy is now pushing to add another 300-megawatt generator to the Nelson Dewey Generating Station in Cassville, Wis. This generator, of course, would utilize mostly coal to produce that amount of power. While this would potentially increase the amount of job opportunities in the area, as well as supply enough electricity to power 150,000 homes, the environmental and health hazards this coal plant would create provide a much greater reason to avoid the construction of such a plant.

Of course, most people—including native Wisconsinites —probably have no idea where Cassville is located. A small village of a little over a thousand people, Cassville is located on the Mississippi River between Iowa and Wisconsin in the far southwest corner of the state. While the production of this plant may not appear to affect us directly here in Madison, it would actually have a much greater impact than many would think.

Weather systems carry storms, wind, and fine particulates in the air from the west to central Wisconsin. This means that any air pollution generated in that corner of the state would be brought into Dane County contaminating our air, which, according to Mayor David Cieslewicz and County Executive Kathleen Falk, is already very close to the designated safe levels for ozone and particulate matter. This, of course, does not even include the pollution such a plant would generate in the immediate area in and surrounding Cassville.

Releasing greenhouse and sulfur dioxide gases as well as contaminating rivers and lakes with mercury, coal plants are notorious polluters. So why would we continue in the production of such generators, when we should be focusing more on more environmentally friendly alternatives?

Alliant Energy has however, promised that this coal plant will be cleaner than traditional plants. They have promised that this plant will have the flexibility to not only rely entirely on coal to produce electricity, but also be able to generate 20% of the total output from environmentally-friendly biomass, harvested from right here in Wisconsin.

However, according to Clean Wisconsin, a Madison-based group, Alliant Energy has already balked on a similar promise that they made in Iowa. There, they promised that 10 percent of the total energy produced at their proposed Marshalltown plant would be from renewable energy sources, yet now officials from Alliant Energy question the feasibility of such a project.

So now the question arises: is Alliant Energy just stringing us along on a stream of environmentally friendly guarantees that will be ripped from us when it comes time to make due on such promises? The risks involved certainly do not warrant us to take such a gamble.

This new plant would produce nearly 3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. An average coal plant also releases over 100 pounds of mercury each year into nearby lakes and streams.

Rather than looking at coal to provide power and job opportunities here in Wisconsin, we should be looking instead at safer, healthier and more renewable energy options. Perhaps we should take a lesson from Texas and California, the leaders in wind-power development.

Furthermore, Alliant Energy could instead look at building a plant that relies solely on biomass to produce power. Either way, greener methods of electricity generation should be sought after. There is little doubt that we need to be generating more energy in the state as demand for electricity grows, but there is absolutely no reason why we cannot be more environmentally-minded about it. Our reliance on coal energy needs to be lessened, not strengthened. Wisconsin needs to work towards cleaner energy alternatives––our environment and health depend upon it.

Ryan Dashek is a junior majoring in biology. We welcome your feedback. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.