Defending an industry

Last night I was listening to NPR’s Marketplace, as I commonly do, and I heard the following story:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/02/pm-the-impact-of-aging-coal-plants-shutting-down/

For the most part, I found the financial story accurate, if sparsely researched.  There is no way Dominion is going to tear down the plant when it goes dark, and the wished transformation of this site into a series of commercial shops and condos just will not happen.  Not in the near future at any rate. 

What I found disturbing is the not-so-subtle commentary of how polluting and nasty this plant is.  These kinds of comments are not based on actual fact.  They are based in the vision of coal miners, black and dirty, suffering from black lung.  Salem Harbor bends over backwards to address the concerns of its community, and is a stout member of the town in which it resides. 

Below is my posted comment to NPR. 

In your podcast of August 2, 2011, Sarah Gardner discussed the closing of the Salem Harbor Coal Plant and its impact on the city of Salem, Massachusetts. I was disappointed in your portrayal of the plant as "dirty", "ugly" and "soot-spewing". As both a mechanical engineer working at Salem Harbor and a resident of Salem, I am offended by my place of work being categorized as an eyesore. The production of electricity is not a glamorous process. However, it is a necessary one, and it's easy for one's over-privileged neighbors to forget that. Coal has been stored at this site since well before the power plant was constructed, and we are long past the days of shoveling coal onto conveyor belts by hand.

The main reason coal plants are shutting down is not so much emission-related as cost-related. The current pricing of natural gas as fuel is far below the cost of coal, a relatively new development. This results in coal plants being called on less frequently. Fewer megawatts means fewer profits, which restricts the ability of merchant plants to install costly emission controls devices, like SNCR's (which Salem Harbor has installed on three of four units and, by the way, was one of the first plants in the United States to do so). The decision to close these plants, as a show called "Marketplace" should have concluded, is, as always, purely a financial one.

As far as pollution goes, Salem Harbor abides and conforms to all state and federal emission requirements, which are among the most aggressive in the country. We are still making changes to improve our environmental performance to this day. If people are so concerned with the air they're breathing, maybe they should look at their own emissions.