False info from candidate

I appreciated your Voter Guide in the July 2018 issue.

This is in response to a statement made by one candidate in the state House 40th district. Paul Secrest stated that “Modern coal plants have eliminated 97 percent of carbon dioxide – I saw a power plant on the Ohio River and the only thing coming out the smokestacks was a little steam.”

This statement is false. Virtually all of the carbon dioxide created in a modern fossil fuel power plant is exhausted directly into the atmosphere.

As documented in a 2017 report by the Congressional Research Service titled Carbon Capture and Sequestration in the United States, there are only two large scale electric power plants operating in the world that capture a significant portion of the carbon dioxide that is generated by the combustion of a fossil fuel (coal) with air. These two facilities are employed mainly to produce both electricity and carbon dioxide gas that can be used to enhance oil production from oil fields in Canada and Texas.

I recommend you publish this letter to correct the mistaken information written by a candidate for the Michigan State House.

Mark Case

Bloomfield Township