Post by AztecWilliam on Aug 4, 2012 20:51:40 GMT -8
Sure, I've seen photographs and films of smokestacks belching out clouds of noxious fumes. Yuck! Who could seriously doubt that such pollution is very bad? Nobody, of course. (As a side point, let's not forget that it was, in part, those nasty smokestacks and the factories they were attached to that created the industrial revolution that made possible the incredible standard of living we enjoy today. Anybody care to return to an 18th Century standard of living as a way of getting rid of pollution?)
So, why not just get outlaw the use of coal? Think of the pollution we would eliminate! Well, of course it's not that simple. May I offer an analogy?
Although the rate of traffic deaths has been going down for some years, thousands still lose their lives or are badly injured on our roads and highways. Let's outlaw motor vehicles; think of the deaths and injuries we would prevent! Yeah, I know, it's a ridiculous idea, but the Obama administration's plan seems to me to be almost as ridiculous.
The U.S., supposedly relatively poor in energy resources, is being asked to transition to non-fossil sources of energy. Sounds good to lots of people. Sounds good even to me. But talking endlessly about renewable energy sources does not by itself mean that such a plan is feasible. How soon will we be able to dispense with fossil fuels? Just how will we be able to power our cars? Electricity? Okay, what will we have to do to generate the electricity needed to replace the millions of gallons of gasoline that we burn every day? And what will power our commercial and private airplanes?
My view is that the Left, including Barack Obama thinks that eliminating fossil fuels is imperative. Fair enough. But I don't think that those who hold that view have any clear plan in mind. They think that if fossil fuels are made more and more costly that somehow, magically, our economy will find ways to compensate. They are wrong.
That brings me back to coal.
We are the Saudi Arabia of coal. (And we are not even considering our ample supply of natural gas, which is by definition much cleaner that coal.) Would it not be a good idea of utilize our coal resources, at least in the short run while we are developing other sources of energy? In the long run it would be wonderful if we could stop using coal to heat our homes and provide electrical power. But is coal so bad that we should risk ruining our economy by banning its use while "green" sources of energy are mostly pipe dreams? It should be pointed out that a lot has been done by way of making coal less polluting than it was in the days when Pittsburgh was perpetually covered by smog.
Now we come to Barack Obama. I just saw a TV program on the coal question. It centered on Boone County, West Virginia. In '08, the county went heavily for Obama. Part of the reason for that is what Obama himself said while campaigning in Boone County. He said, and the program included a video of Obama making this statement, that he was enthusiastically in favor of the use of "clean coal mined here in West Virginia." That was then.
Obama also said, and again I have seen the video, that under his plan, energy prices would "necessarily skyrocket." He also said, I think in the same video, that he would make sure that any company that tried to open a new coal fired energy generation plant would go bankrupt. It's pretty clear that, no matter what the damage it would do to the economy of much of the country, Barack Obama intends to cripple virtually all sectors of energy production that rely on fossil fuel.
(One has to wonder whether the President has really thought through the consequences of some of his policies. One also has to wonder whether Obama really thought that West Virginians would simply forget that during the '08 campaign he was all in favor of coal.)
With coal mines closing, the unemployment rate in Boone County has skyrocketed. I don't think that Barack Obama should expect too many votes from West Virginia in November.
(Here's something else to consider. Coal will still be mined, but increasingly it will be sent to China, a country that is quite a bit less fastidious in the area of pollution control than we are in this country. The last time I looked, China is still on this planet, and pollution generated there will affect world wide climate patterns.)
AzWm
.
So, why not just get outlaw the use of coal? Think of the pollution we would eliminate! Well, of course it's not that simple. May I offer an analogy?
Although the rate of traffic deaths has been going down for some years, thousands still lose their lives or are badly injured on our roads and highways. Let's outlaw motor vehicles; think of the deaths and injuries we would prevent! Yeah, I know, it's a ridiculous idea, but the Obama administration's plan seems to me to be almost as ridiculous.
The U.S., supposedly relatively poor in energy resources, is being asked to transition to non-fossil sources of energy. Sounds good to lots of people. Sounds good even to me. But talking endlessly about renewable energy sources does not by itself mean that such a plan is feasible. How soon will we be able to dispense with fossil fuels? Just how will we be able to power our cars? Electricity? Okay, what will we have to do to generate the electricity needed to replace the millions of gallons of gasoline that we burn every day? And what will power our commercial and private airplanes?
My view is that the Left, including Barack Obama thinks that eliminating fossil fuels is imperative. Fair enough. But I don't think that those who hold that view have any clear plan in mind. They think that if fossil fuels are made more and more costly that somehow, magically, our economy will find ways to compensate. They are wrong.
That brings me back to coal.
We are the Saudi Arabia of coal. (And we are not even considering our ample supply of natural gas, which is by definition much cleaner that coal.) Would it not be a good idea of utilize our coal resources, at least in the short run while we are developing other sources of energy? In the long run it would be wonderful if we could stop using coal to heat our homes and provide electrical power. But is coal so bad that we should risk ruining our economy by banning its use while "green" sources of energy are mostly pipe dreams? It should be pointed out that a lot has been done by way of making coal less polluting than it was in the days when Pittsburgh was perpetually covered by smog.
Now we come to Barack Obama. I just saw a TV program on the coal question. It centered on Boone County, West Virginia. In '08, the county went heavily for Obama. Part of the reason for that is what Obama himself said while campaigning in Boone County. He said, and the program included a video of Obama making this statement, that he was enthusiastically in favor of the use of "clean coal mined here in West Virginia." That was then.
Obama also said, and again I have seen the video, that under his plan, energy prices would "necessarily skyrocket." He also said, I think in the same video, that he would make sure that any company that tried to open a new coal fired energy generation plant would go bankrupt. It's pretty clear that, no matter what the damage it would do to the economy of much of the country, Barack Obama intends to cripple virtually all sectors of energy production that rely on fossil fuel.
(One has to wonder whether the President has really thought through the consequences of some of his policies. One also has to wonder whether Obama really thought that West Virginians would simply forget that during the '08 campaign he was all in favor of coal.)
With coal mines closing, the unemployment rate in Boone County has skyrocketed. I don't think that Barack Obama should expect too many votes from West Virginia in November.
(Here's something else to consider. Coal will still be mined, but increasingly it will be sent to China, a country that is quite a bit less fastidious in the area of pollution control than we are in this country. The last time I looked, China is still on this planet, and pollution generated there will affect world wide climate patterns.)
AzWm
.
