Question: What do 52 million trees in Guatemala have to do with one coal- burning power plant in Uncasville, Conn.? Answer: they form a healthy environmental equation. That is the hope of Virginia-based Applied Energy Services, a builder and operator of power plants in Texas, Pennsylvania and California. Like any other coal-fired generator, the 180-megawatt plant now under construction in Uncasville will spew carbon dioxide, the chief culprit ! in the globe-warming greenhouse effect. But acting on a recommendation from the World Resources Institute, a Washington environmental-policy research center, AES has voluntarily donated $2 million in seed money to a CARE project in Guatemala designed to stave off the climatic crisis by replanting depleted forests.
The AES donation, along with help from the Peace Corps and the Guatemalan forestry service, will help an estimated 40,000 local farmers plant some 52 million seedlings that eventually will absorb a quantity of CO2 roughly equal to the amount generated at Uncasville over the 40-year life-span of the facility. Says AES chief Roger Sant, "Given the scientific consensus on the seriousness of the greenhouse problem, we decided it was time to stop talking and act."