TPO 41

The main subject of both the passage and the lecture is whether it is necessary for the United States government to impose stringent rules on handling and storing coal ash, which is a harmful material created by burning coal by power plants. The lecture states that power plant representatives disagree with this idea, while the lecture defends it.

According to the lecture, the representatives claim that there are enough regulations. For instance, power plants must use liner, a material preventing coal ash from penetrating into the soil, when they create any new landfill. Although the lecturer confirms the existence of this regulation, she highlights the fact that old landfills also need this material and this regulation is only for new landfills.

The author states that a large amount of coal ash created by power plants is recycled into different products such as concrete and bricks. Therefore, new strict regulations cause customers to stop buying these materials, which increases the need for disposing of this contaminated material into the environment. The lecture, however, rejects this assumption because the same experience as this case already occurred in past as for mercury, and there is not any adverse effect on customers.

The reading asserts that new regulations impose a great amount of cost on power plants, increasing the price of the electricity and making the public angry. On the other hand, the lecture refutes it, stating that due to the division of increased cost into a multitude of households. This increase is insignificant and nature is of paramount importance than this minute extra cost.