Marion County residents gathered to hear about possible health risks associated with a proposed coal-powered electricty plant. The plant would be built across the Great Pee Dee River from the Gresham and Friendship communities.

More than 100 people gathered Tuesday to learn about the updated air proposal Santee Cooper submitted to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) for the proposed Pee Dee Energy Campus.

The public will have a chance to hear more about a proposed coal-fired power plant wanting to come to lower Florence County Tuesday.

Opponents of Santee Cooper’s proposed Pee Dee Energy Campus said the announcements made Tuesday by Santee Cooper are little more than diversions to make people think the facility will be good for the region.

Santee Cooper, having long been on the defense regarding the proposed Pee Dee Energy Campus in Kingsburg, is taking measures to fight back against what it calls misinformation regarding mercury to be produced by the facility.

Despite what Santee Cooper claims, this plant does not use the best available environmental technology.

USC’s College of Engineering and Computing held a forum Wednesday to teach people more about how coal is used as a source of energy in the United States.

Al Gore’s prize-winning film on global warming was more than two years off when the Virginia legislature in 2004 backed a coal-burning power plant in Southwest Virginia.

Researchers from the East Carolina Development Corporation will release the findings of an Economic Impact Study of Santee-Cooper’s proposed coal-fired power plant Friday afternoon in Florence.

Eastern Carolina Community Development Corp., in conjunction with the Coastal Conservation League, has released a new economic impact analysis on the proposed Santee Cooper coal-fired power plant in Kingsburg.

Santee Cooper has proposed a 600-megawatt coal-fired generation facility, which would be located on a 2,709-acre tract in Kingsburg. The facility is scheduled to become operational sometime after 2012.

Of the fuels commonly used to run power plants, none releases more carbon dioxide than coal—an unfortunate reality for utilities hoping to build a new generation of coal plants.