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earth, the final frontier

Clean Energy, Clean Environment

We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment with a higher return on investment for your hard earned money. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

Greenwashing Coal

16 Oct 08 | Commentary, Environment

We have a serious energy problem our hands.  I fear it will get worse before it gets better.  We may need to build more coal fired electric plants to meet future demands for energy, especially if we migrate to electric vehicles.  Hey, that electricity has to come from somewhere.  Unfortunately, solar electric, either by harnessing heat to make steam or photovoltaics, is still a long way from being able to fill that demand.

To bridge that gap, we have but two choices, nuclear or coal.  I am not sure what the lesser of those two evils are.  That being said, please don’t tell me that coal is clean.

Coal is anything but clean; from its extraction to its final use, coal is dirty.  From the mountain top removal sites in West Virgina, where environmental damage is almost indescribable, to the electric generation station billowing out not just CO2, but Sulfur Dioxide, Nitric oxides, Mercury, Uranium, Cesium and other heavy metals, the damage to the environment is nearly incalculable.

Ask the residents of the West Virgina coal region whether they are prospering along with the companies that mine the coal.  Ask anyone living down wind from a coal fired power plant how they feel on a day to day basis.  Look at the environmental record of both the coal producers and the power producers.  Is this the kind of behavior we want to reward?

Somewhere along the line, somebody decided that all business was about greed.  Being the good consumers that we are, we happy citizens followed right along and made our personal lives about money.  After all, coal is cheap, the energy produced by coal is cheap, therefore it must be good.

There are, indeed, new technologies that greatly reduce the emissions of coal fired electrical power plants.  These include things like scrubbers to remove nitric and sulfur compounds, CO2 capture and sequestration.  These newer technologies are not normally retrofitted to older facilities.  The average life span of a coal fired power plant is anywhere from 30 to 50 years.  The plants that were previously built will continue to spew pollutants for years to come.

Not everything is about money.  There are quality of life issues as well.  Even if you live hundreds of miles away from any coal mines or power plants, eventually, the environmental damage will be so great that you will be effected.

Related posts:

  1. Is this coal clean?
  2. Coal Power, our competitor.
  3. Ground Source Heat Pump; same as a coal stove?
  4. Let’s just give up…
  5. Slowly, the ship is turning

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16 Oct 08 | Commentary, Environment
« Renewable tax credits extended for 8 years
Five Good Reasons to Install a Solar Energy System »


Reader's Comments

  1. Eric Zimmer | November 6th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

    Nice post…I just wrote about the same thing.

    http://tipenergy.typepad.com/tipping_point_renewble_en/2008/11/election-edition.html

    I agree that we will most likely need sources of electricity like coal or nuclear. What bothers and worries me is that the greenwashing of coal will lead the average person to conclude that we don’t need to make aggressive changes.

  2. Robot | November 13th, 2008 at 4:59 am

    “Coal is anything but clean”is a nice sentence by you.There are
    new technologies that greatly reduce the emissions of coal fired,They are Clean Coal and the others.I agree with this…



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