Scientist Calls for Halt to Coal Power (AP)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

''There should be a moratorium on building any more coal-fired power plants,'' NASA scientist James Hansen told the National Press Club Monday.

Feb. 26, 2007 -- WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the world's top climate scientists called for an end to building new coal-fired power plants in the United States because of their huge role in spewing out greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

In the next decade of so, 159 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built, generating enough power for about 96 million homes, according to a study last month by the U.S. Department of Energy.

''There should be a moratorium on building any more coal-fired power plants,'' NASA scientist James Hansen told the National Press Club Monday. Hansen was one of the earliest top researchers to warn the world of global warming.

Hansen's call dovetails with an edict by the private equity group buying TXU, a massive Texas-based utility. The equity group, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, agreed to stop plans to build eight new coal-fired power plants, not to propose new coal-fired plants outside Texas and to support mandatory national caps on emissions linked to global warming.

This is the first time Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, has called for an end to coal burning. He said it's the No. 1 solution to global warming, and that so far, no coal-fired plants can capture carbon dioxide emissions so they are not released into the atmosphere.