NO. NEW. COAL PLANTS. EVER.

EPA has put in a rule that new power plants must produce more than 1MWh per 1000lbs of CO2 dumped. Coal produces around 1800lbs/MWh.

I never thought about my own drop-in-the-bucket contribution in terms of carbon or CO2 released, because I'd only heard it when discussing smaller units. For instance, burning a gallon of gas releases 5 pounds of carbon (19lb CO2), and a KWh from burning coal produces half a pound of carbon (1.8lb CO2). But it's shocking to consider my usage from an individual household over more than a moment in time. Consider the numbers taken over a month. Just for me, with a compact car and a smallish house in a temperate month, I released 125lbs of carbon from 25 gallons of gas and 225lbs of carbon from 450kWh of coal electricity. This month, I've taken 350lbs of carbon that God trapped discretely in the earth aeons ago. Perhaps it was captured at a time when the Sun was cooler, and the earth was hotter, and the seas were higher, and there were no large mammals, and no ecological niche for large mammals to thrive in. Then, I randomly dispersed it into the atmosphere so that it will take some more aeons to be re-captured and re-buried. And that's for one light month! For the year, multiply by 12 and add more for the hot months and road trips. And I keep doing this year after year!!! Next house upgrade: solar (10 year payback, then 10% return every year). Next car: Mitsubishi i EV ($22k) or Prius ($15k-$22k used).