Environmentalists say the decision by Gov. Jim Doyle to scrap the use of coal at the state’s power plants in downtown Madison will help the city’s long-suffering air and water.
“We’ll have no more coal dust running into the lake. We’ll have no more air pollution from the coal. We’ll have no more mercury going into our air and lakes. We’ll cut our global warming pollution drastically,” rejoiced Jennifer Feyerherm, director of the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign. “All these problems will be solved by simply moving away from coal.”
Doyle said last week that the state would end coal use at the pollution-belching Charter Street heating plant, built in 1954, and the 106-year-old Capitol Heat and Power Plant, and replace them with cleaner systems. No target date has been set for the conversion.