The MU power plant serves more than 35,000 students, faculty and staff by burning coal, and has been from its current location since 1923. The plant, originally equipped with four small coal-fired boilers, and two steam turbines is today operating with six boilers, four steam turbine generators, two gas turbine generators with steam heat recovery, and five deep wells providing steam, electricity, and water to the MU campus.

The Energy Information Administration reports that coal produces 36 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and creates half of the electricity generated in the nation.

Recent protest efforts have been initiated on the University of Missouri campus by Green Corps. and The Sierra Club with the help of the MU Young Democrats Society. Most students involved in the protests associated with MUYDS did not know that Green Corps. is a subsidiary of a large progressive lobbying group. Few cared.

The university's new $60 million to $70 million biomass boiler, set to be running by 2012, will burn only biomass. Currently, the plant mixes wood chips supplied by a community member and tire shreds supplied by area prisons to cut down on coal use.

"The biomass boiler is going to cost more to run than a coal-fired boiler, but we're willing to do things to be doing the right thing," MU Sustainability Coordinator Steve Burdic said. "We just can't break the bank to do it."

Coal used by the university is trucked in from deposits mined in Illinois. Around 7 trucks arrive daily with more coal.

MU President Gary Forsee has been embroiled recently over comments regarding cap and trade. Truthfully, any cap and trade legislation will greatly increase the total cost of energy production, which will have to be passed on to students.

For the students and university themselves, little has been done to effectively cut power consumption. Lights are still burning at all times of the night, buildings are inefficient at heating and cooling and current upgrades will be outmoded within a decade.

Unless ignorance, apathy and a healthy understanding that the current infrastructure doesn’t allow for substantial green upgrades, the economics of the situation will still sustain a demand for coal.