Environmental activist and climate change educator Peter Sinclair and coal plant project development manager Janet Vanderpool can agree on a few things: both are seeking low-cost energy, and the U.S. government needs federal regulations to control carbon dioxide emissions.

But they don’t agree on what the role of coal should be in the future, and they spent Tuesday night explaining their differences to about 70 people at a forum on Michigan’s future energy sources. At the end of the forum, two questioners wondered what the health costs to the community would be because of plant emissions. Another wondered why local companies should get cheaper energy while she might never get hired by one of these companies.

Vanderpool is project development manager for Mid-Michigan Energy, a joint venture of LS Power and Dynegy that proposes a $1.9 billion, 750-megawatt coal-fired plant at the intersection of South Saginaw Road and Waldo Avenue in Midland. She contends while the plant won’t bring individual customers’ utility costs down, it would bring much-needed power to local businesses.

“Basically we’re showing everything” to the public, she said in answer to a question about the “health costs” to the community that could be brought on by the plant. “We’ve done our studies. The state is reviewing our studies,” added Vanderpool, who sees Mid-Michigan Energy as “a bridge to cleaner coal.”

Sinclair said many proposed coal plants have been canceled because of soaring prices for construction materials such as copper, concrete and steel and the global need for these products in, for example, China. Another reason is that the United States still has no regulations for dealing with carbon emissions as pollutants.

One electric company official has said, in Sinclair’s words, “nobody with any respect for shareholders’ money would start a coal plant right now.” He noted Midland’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy anticipates declining energy needs in Michigan in the coming years, and DTE is forecasting declines through 2010. Even the head of Dynegy has said he wouldn’t be surprised to see a lull in plant development.

“He’s sending out a gentle signal that things are on hold,” Sinclair said.

Vanderpool stressed emissions controls: how high-efficiency boilers would minimize emissions and how the plant would use the best available controls on all major emissions, plus the use of systems for continuous monitoring of emissions.

“None of the existing coal-fired plants in Michigan have all these pollution controls … (or) the efficiency of this project,” she said.

Taking into account the existing air quality of the local area plus proposed emissions from Mid-Michigan Energy’s plant, air emissions would remain significantly lower than levels that could harm sensitive populations such as those with asthma, she said.

Overall, she said, air pollution is decreasing because of environmental controls in industry, even though traffic and energy use are increasing.

As for future energy sources, Sinclair envisions wind farms that could be built on giant platforms off shore where they would take the best advantage of the wind yet be close enough to population centers that transmission costs would be low.

“We’ll build wind farms far enough off shore where people are not going to be complaining about them,” he said.

In response to a question about water the plant would buy from the City of Midland, Vanderpool said the water would be raw, or untreated. The plant would use 12 million gallons a day, mostly for facilities that would cool any steam that future clients would not use. People would see a plume coming from a cooling tower, water that would fall back into the local watershed.

A woman in the audience said she has not heard of job openings at the Dow Chemical Co. or at Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. Calling herself highly employable with a master’s degree in business administration, “Why should I give up my environment in Michigan for a company that isn’t hiring?” she asked.

Vanderpool replied that the woman “maybe missed the point.” Reliable energy is a key point for such companies to be able to expand. “If they don’t have a source, they’re not going to expand here,” she added.