What are the Filthy 5?
The Filthy 5 refers to five power plants that were positioned in Massachusetts. The Filthy 5 were constructed forward of 1977 and were because of this truth exempt from stylish air air pollution laws for a couple of years.
Key Takeaways
- The Filthy 5 was once as soon as a name given to collectively to five coal-fired power plants in Massachusetts.
- The plants were in operation for a few years the usage of older, dirty era, alternatively were licensed to continue operation beneath the federal Clean Air Act.
- The remaining of the Filthy 5 ceased operation in 2017.
Understanding the Filthy 5
The Filthy 5 emitted a variety of events the quantity of air air pollution created by means of stylish plants at levels that exceeded those licensed beneath the revised Clear Air Act of 1990. However, the ones plants were exempt from stylish air air pollution rules on account of that they had been legacied in beneath the former laws. They produced large amounts of sulfur, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and mercury. The governor of Massachusetts were given right here beneath political pressure to do something about the ones plants and issued an edict requiring them to persist with stylish air air pollution rules.Â
The remaining of the Filthy 5 power plants was once as soon as Brayton Stage Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts, which was once as soon as a 1,500-megawatt plant and a very powerful coal-fired plant in New England. It went dark in Would in all probability 2017 as part of a shutdown which have been underway for a variety of years. Other people of the Filthy 5 included Salem Harbor Power Station, which stopped burning coal on June 1, 2014. The Salem Station generated power beginning in 1951, alternatively shuttered on account of low natural gasoline prices, low name for for electric power, and tightening Federal air air pollution rules.
Transition to Cleaner Energy
As in several areas of the country, the top of coal in Massachusetts resulted no longer very best from energy environmental activism, alternatively from numerous monetary parts, along with stricter air air pollution rules, cleaner energy imaginable possible choices and a changing market all through which coal use had grow to be dear and inefficient. Cleaner energy possible choices harking back to natural gasoline have largely modified coal as a primary provide of energy throughout the space for the reason that closure of the Filthy 5. Near to 50 % of New England’s energy now comes from natural gasoline, while a third comes from nuclear power, consistent with ISO New England, the gang that oversees the regional power grid. The identical construction applies nationwide. The share of U.S. electric power generate by means of coal fell from 52 % in 2000 to 37 % in 2012 on account of shale gasoline construction. The Energy Wisdom Control predicts that natural gasoline will produce additional electric power than coal by means of 2035.
This transition has no longer include out complications. Extended low temperatures all over the wintry weather of 2017 created over the top energy name for for heat for houses. However, natural gasoline pipeline capacity wasn’t sufficiently expanded to satisfy the decision for. For the reason that space’s natural gasoline provide infrastructure will building up, this worry should decrease.
