Coal Pollution Can Be Seen Pouring From Power Plant Smokestacks • Watts Up With That?

Pro: Many photos show the ugly pollution being emitted

The screen grab below is from this Washington Post article.

The Washington Post’s caption says “…emissions spew from the smokestacks at… coal-fired power plant…”

These photos are all over the Internet showing the pollution from these plants.

Con: These photos are pure propaganda, blatantly and deliberately deceiving readers

What do you suppose those black, deadly-looking plumes of “emissions” really are? Condensing steam, that’s what. Just plain water. Plumes of condensing water vapor normally look white and benign, but by artfully choosing a vantage point to the east of the plant, and a time just after sunset, the photographers manage to make the pretty white plumes of harmless steam look black and threatening.

Coal plants in the US and elsewhere in the West have spent 10’s of billions of dollars installing state-of-the-art scrubbers to change the make up of that plume from our coal plants to be almost completely steam.

Here’s what the exact power plant pictured above really looks like without photographic tricks and manipulation. As you can see, it is clearly white steam that quickly evaporates.