Ohio University’s goal to wean off coal as a fuel source by 2015 is a trend that other Ohio universities are adopting because of not only environmental reasons but also human health risks.
According to the Clean Air Task Force, air pollution from coal plants causes more than 13,000 deaths, 200,000 asthma attacks and $100 billion in medical damages each year.
The task force uses peer-reviewed methods approved by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board.
Despite these risks, coal provided 42 percent of the United States’ electricity supply in 2011, according to task force numbers.
Recently, OU’s Lausche Heating Plant switched to a five-month natural-gas testing phase in two of its boilers. In March 2011, Ohio University pledged to stop burning coal in Lausche’s boilers by 2015.
Miami University, which made the same promise on April 4, 2011, and the University of Cincinnati, which made the pact in February, are working in the same vein as OU.
“None of these schools wants to be on the trailing edge of energy trends,” said Nachy Kanfer, a Midwest states representative for the Sierra Club, whose OU chapter participated in its own Beyond Coal campaign. “It’s bad economically, and it’s bad for them as institutions.”
Both Miami and UC had Beyond Coal groups spearheading their efforts.
Kanfer said other Midwestern schools looking into non-coal -based energy options include Michigan State University, Indiana University, Purdue University, the University of Minnesota, the College of Wooster, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Toledo.
“I think there are lots (of) factors, including the increased cost in the price of coal due to increased oil prices as well as the general understanding that coal is on its way out,” Kanfer said.
Sophomore Camille Scott, president of the OU Sierra Student Coalition and a member of Beyond Coal, said Kanfer was crucial in helping students ensure the agreement with administrators.
“He was the one that really helped us get our stuff together and get what we needed to go up against the university,” Scott said.
Students involved in the Beyond Coal campaign had been lobbying since 2009 until turning to the Sierra Club for assistance. Kanfer, who at the time was coordinating some of the group’s energy work in Ohio, agreed to help.
“We formed a partnership and tried to form a bit of a movement at OU that encouraged the university to move beyond coal,” Kanfer said.
It is no coincidence that OU was in the middle of the off-coal movement, as the city of Athens sits in the middle of coal country. As a result of pollutants emitted from coal-burning plants in 2010, Ohio recorded the country’s second-highest number of estimated deaths at 1,221, hospital admissions at 835, and heart attacks at 1,861.
OU’s Beyond Coal campaign might have proved to be a model for other campuses. After working with multiple schools, Kanfer said he believed that was the case.
“We worked with UC closely and worked with Miami University students,” he said. “I absolutely think OU served as a springboard.”
as506610@ohiou.edu
