Coal

Overheal

Woke up this morning and found this docu-film running on the TV: http://www.burningthefuture.org/show.asp?content_id=14089

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQPYKD4WGew

It's really managed to make me question how wise it is to be pushing for more coal consumption to reduce dependency on foreign oil. I know in the past thats something I have supported.

In one example it cites, while a public trust lawyer was preparing to file suit against the coal industry for repeatedly violating the clean water act, it appears that the Bush Administration got his buddies out of trouble by making what they were doing illegally, perfectly legal, Just weeks before having to forfeit executive power, legitimizing hundreds of slurry dumps across the Appalachians:

http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/12/05/bush-ignores-clean-water-act-in-new-mountaintop-mining-regs/

And thats before you get into the repercussions of all the strip mining on the environment and the Americans living in those mountains that are surrounded by polluted air and groundwater.

And offshore drilling? ..... yeah thats still working out well. BP was this week caught threatening to fire any of its employees that tried to used respirators during the cleanup: they felt that it would be admitting liability to air contamination.

http://gizmodo.com/5582758/bp-reportedly-preventing-clean+up-workers-from-wearing-respirators

And the American Power Act being pushed by Kerry and Lieberman doesn't really sound that much different. A Push for Clean Coal Technology, which in a nutshell means cleaner air - but that waste must go somewhere(!) and so it is dumped into slurry ponds and valleys, left to soak into groundwater and enter the water table. And then of course theres Cap and Trade, which is apparently the Accountability designed into the bill. But will it really be accountable. No, because it charges against greenhouse gasses if im not mistaken. Which means when a coal refinery removes that slurry and dumps it into the Appalachian mountains, that waste tonnage is not factored in. All that is factored in is what the coal plant burns. From what the refinery worker that was interviewed in that film stated; for every 100 tons of coal burned traditionally, it produced 40 tons of ash. With Clean Coal refinement its closer to 4 tons. which leaves 36 tons that gets dumped; and does not become part of cap and trade.

http://lieberman.senate.gov/index.cfm/news-events/news/2010/5/kerry-lieberman-american-power-act-bill-will-secure-americas-energy-climate-future

A farce from democrat and republic parties alike.

Denerick

The biggest problem in America is its politics. They are just unbelievably gridlocked over common sense problems like this. People wonder why the American car industry has been in decline for a decade - the answer is simple, really. They concentrated on gaz guzzlers at a time of global oil price rises. In the meantime consumers started buying more fuel efficient foreign made cars... Nice one.

Not much will be done until oil and coal become uncompetitively expensive. Only then will alternatives realistically be looked for.

amacachi

Denerick wrote: »

The biggest problem in America is its politics. They are just unbelievably gridlocked over common sense problems like this. People wonder why the American car industry has been in decline for a decade - the answer is simple, really. They concentrated on gaz guzzlers at a time of global oil price rises. In the meantime consumers started buying more fuel efficient foreign made cars... Nice one.

Not much will be done until oil and coal become uncompetitively expensive. Only then will alternatives realistically be looked for.

It's not the only problem, why can foreign companies run factories in America just fine? Anything to do with union-inflated wages and benefits and size of the workforce?

Coal is something I just can't decide on to be perfectly honest.