Clean coal is an unattainable utopia (and entropically impossible), and to think that we cannot have an economy without subjugating significant sections of our population to environmental and personal harm is the same as thinking our economy would not survive without slavery. We are smart enough to make it happen.
Sierra Presents the Cost of Coal
"When mining companies level West Virginia mountains to get at the coal beneath, towns disappear. When a Michigan power plant burns coal to make electricity, it triggers asthma in children nearby. When coal ash blows onto a Paiute reservation in Nevada, elders die."
Thankfully, the market (even with the current subsidies to the polluting technology) is starting to find that coal is an expensive alternative (and it would be even more so if we required those who mine and burn to pay the total cost of their business).
Yes, coal is dying, but no, EPA is not the main culprit
"In fact, say the authors, the change is 'primarily due to changing market conditions, not environmental rule revisions, which have trended towards more lenient requirements and schedules'
And finally, there’s the possibility of substantial new support for clean energy and/or some sort of price on carbon. Their chances seem remote now, and I certainly don’t expect them by 2016, but … by 2020? Well, 2020 is a long way away. We can’t stay stupid about climate change forever."
We are also finally starting to understand that growth and expansion of high quality of life - the real purpose of an economy - does not have a direct link to how much energy we use.
Savers Push $374 Billion U.S. Utility Industry to Shift
"Electricity use in the U.S. declined 2 percent this year through Sept. 22, and was down 3 percent from a year earlier as consumers buy light bulbs that burn 25 percent fewer watts and install technology that turns off appliances when the delivery grid is strained. The industry produced $374 billion in revenue in 2011, the Edison Electric Institute said.
Power and coal consumption dropped last year to 2,790 British thermal units per real dollar of U.S. gross domestic product, a 32 percent drop from 1981 levels and a record low for data collected since 1973, the Energy Department said on its website."
It is important that we continue this trend, because the decisions we make now and the infrastructure we put in place will have lasting impacts on our behavior.
Greenhouse gases rise with GDP but are slower to fall in recession
"Emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose by an average of 0.73 percent for every 1 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, Richard York of the University of Oregon wrote in his report. But emissions fell just 0.43 percent for every percent decline in GDP per capita, he added, based on a review of World Bank statistics of more than 150 nations from 1960 to 2008."
Once we understand that we do not need vast amounts of energy to have a high quality of life, we can see the value in local, renewable, natural and less harmful forms of energy transfer.
Wind Power Adds Jobs and Increases Wealth in Rural Communities
"'For every megawatt of additional wind in County A, one would expect an $11,150 increase in income,' said Ryan Wiser, Staff Scientist and Deputy Group Leader in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group at LBL. Along with the increase in income, there was also an average 0.48 increase in net jobs, and Wiser added that the net job measure is meaningful only when most wind farms are bigger than 1 MW."
Happy Friday!
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