Dear Editor: Environmental justice once again passes Beloit by, this time in the form of the DNR’s latest decision to issue permitting approval allowing Alliant Energy to build out seven “natural gas” combustion engines totaling 17 megawatts of power at the Riverside Energy Center.
If you haven’t heard by now, natural gas has a health halo that it doesn’t deserve, so call it by the most appropriate name: methane. Methane has up to 80 times the planet-warming potential of carbon dioxide. The methane we burn for power goes hand in hand with the release of toxic pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde. Burning methane generates particulate matter that can worsen COPD and asthma.
As a respiratory therapist, I ask Alliant and the DNR, why do we need more fossil fuels in a time of crisis? Beloit suffers with some of the worst air quality in the nation already. Piles of public comments have been submitted opposing this project, and roundly ignored…