Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

 

Published - Thursday, May 15, 2008

Dairyland should set new goals

By CHARLES A. DOERR | Viroqua, Wis.

Customers of Dairyland Power Cooperative should contact their local cooperative utility board representatives to register their concerns at the coming May 16 Dairyland Power Cooperative board meeting in La Crosse. Please urge them to adopt the following:

  • Terminate siting of any landfill for coal-ash disposal in Vernon County.

  • Terminate installation of scrubbers and impo

    rtation of lime entirely and renegotiate Alstom contracts to purchase gasification retrofit equipment instead.

  • If scrubbers are installed, DPC should limit their use and the generation of lime coal ash to match only what recycling markets can bear.

  • DPC should buy SO2 credits to buy time to explore and implement better alternatives.

  • DPC should aggressively manage baseload demand to reduce waste, implement conservation rewards, credits and incentives, and penalize unnecessary consumption and all harmful

    emissions.

  • DPC should invest heavily in renewable energy: solar, wind, methane, geothermal, hydro, etc.

  • DPC should retrofit and downsize the Genoa No. 3 plant to gasified coal and biomass feedstock to lower NOX emissions, to cut sulfur, mercury and pa

    rticulates by

    95 percent with pre-combustion filtering, and cut water use by 30 percent with once-through cooling.

    Let’s encourage Dairyland Power Cooperative to lead the way and set new goals for a cleaner environment and more sustainable practices.

     

    All stories copyright 2000 - 2006 La Crosse Tribune and other attributed sources.

    		•