EPA To Reuse Toxic Sites For Renewable Energy

Hugh Pickens writes:"The Daily Climate reports that President Obama and Congress are pushing to identify thousands of contaminated landfills and abandoned mines — 'brownfields' that could be repurposed to house wind farms, solar arrays, and geothermal power plants. Using already disturbed lands would help avoid conflicts between renewable energy developers and environmental groups concerned about impacts to wildlife habitat. 'In the next decade there's going to be a lot of renewable energy built, and all that has to go somewhere,' said Jessica Goad, an energy and climate change policy fellow for The Wilderness Society. 'We don't want to see these industrial facilities placed on land that's pristine. We love the idea of brownfields for renewable energy development because it relieves the (development) pressure on undisturbed places. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have identified nearly 4,100 contaminated sites deemed economically suitable for wind and solar power development, as well as biomass. Included are 5 million acres suitable for photovoltaic or concentrated solar power development, and 500,000 acres for wind power. These sites, if fully developed, have the potential to produce 950,000 megawatts — more than the country's total power needs in 2007, according to EPA data."

Re:Won't be all of 'em though.

[nedlohs]

You fill it with nuclear waste first, obviously.

Re:Superfund

[the brown guy]

I live in a brownfield. Please do not deport me. Thank you for your call sir and have a nice day.

Not in my backyard!

[igny]

I would not let this happen on the landfill in my backyard! That would ruin the beautiful sunset over the steaming pile of crap I am enjoying here, and the price of my house will go like way down!

Re:Won't be all of 'em though.

[nedlohs]

Best just to put it in a big hole for future generations.

If it's really that bad it must be more radioactive than plain old uranium ore (since otherwise putting it back in the ground would be a no brainer) and hence it would be a better fuel source.

At least we can leave something for the great-grand children. And nuclear waste piles seems like the ideal gift.

But I was trying to make a joke...