THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume V, Issue # 294, December 8, 2003
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
COAL AS AN ENERGY SOURCE:
ENVIRONMENTALISTS VERSUS ENERGY CONSUMERS
By Alan Caruba
According to tradition, if one has been a bad little boy or girl, Santa will leave a lump of coal in his or her stocking. The Greens targeted
coal along with virtually every other source of energy as “dirty” and, frankly, the truth about coal needs to be told, lest we forget what
a bounty we have in this nation and how well it serves us all.
I am old enough to recall shoveling coal into a furnace to heat my home before we switched to natural gas. Back in the 1940s and 1950s,
many American homes still relied on coal in this manner, but, since then, more and more Americans have relyied upon fuel oil and natural gas
as the sources of energy to heat their homes, and, more recently, have been relying upon electricity for this purpose. In another way,
however, coal is still a factor, since electricity is required to operate today’s furnaces and more than fifty percent of all electricity
generated in America comes from utilities that use coal.
I was reminded of this when I read of a new "War Between the States," as nine states have gone into court to challenge fourteen others
which have allied to block new federal rules that relax stringent anti-pollution requirements for power plants, refineries, and manufacturers.
The suit, filed by northeastern states, would stop the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing new Clean Air Act rules that
make it easier for older plants to make upgrades without having to install more extensive and costly pollution controls. Could this be
politically motivated? Twelve of the fourteen state attorney generals are Democrats.
The nine states in opposition argue that failure to implement the new rules would increase the costs of enforcing air pollution cases,
limit enforcement options, and frustrate industry’s ability to make efficiency and other cost-saving improvements.
What most Americans don’t know is that utilities and others which use coal have achieved the ability to eliminate most of the pollutants
mandated in the 1970 Clean Air Act. Every single pollutant tracked by the EPA since 1970 has declined and much of the cleanup began
before the EPA even existed.
These days, what one actually sees coming from “smokestacks” is steam! Surprised? The dark, sooty material called fly ash is removed
by “precipitators” that eliminate 99.5% of it. Coal contains sulfur which, when coal is burned, combines with oxygen to produce sulfur
oxides. Beginning in the 1970s, “flue gas scrubbers” were introduced, and they remove up to 95% of the sulfur oxides before they go
up the smokestack
None of this is cheap, and the nine states fighting the fourteen others understandably do not want to get stuck with a bill for
“improvements” that cost billions. This would be farcical if the money involved didn’t include more than a $100 million for a single
“scrubber,” plus millions more to operate. Who pays for this? Consumers of electricity!
Right now, there are more than 140 scrubbers installed and operating at U/S. utilities, with about fifty more planned. You do the
arithmetic. Moreover, utilities have already spent $60 billion to control sulfur emissions that are down 18% from their peak in 1973.
Other than the idiotic notion of wind-powered electricity, which would require covering every square mile of the U.S.A. with giant
windmills to generate only a small percentage of what coal-operated utilities currently produce, Greens have never found any source
of energy that they really like. Some groups are actively trying to remove dams used to produce hydroelectricity, and what is cleaner
than water power?
So, when you know the truth, coal takes on a new luster. And the news just gets better. There is an estimated 250 to 300-year supply
of coal in the United States. Even the dreaded coal ash is put to use as filler in tennis rackets, golf balls, and linoleum. More than two
million acres of mined land has been reclaimed over the past two decades, an area larger than the State of Delaware.
For the Greens, however, enough is never enough. Since 1970, American industry has spent some $350 billion to clean the air and, each
year, the tab for pollution controls totals another $33 million. Forcing industries and utilities to spend millions more for massive
upgrades, when they only need far less costly solutions, makes no sense. That’s why the new EPA rules need to be implemented,
despite the objections of the northeastern states.
According to the Electric Power Research Institute, pollution control equipment accounts for up to 40% of the cost of a new power
plant and 35% of operational costs. These costs account for about $10 billion of the nation’s electric bills each year and are expected
to rise. Keep that in mind when you get your monthly energy bill, since YOU are the one paying for all of this.
Another way Greens have found to force up costs is to put vast reserves of coal and other energy sources off-limits to use. Thanks
to former President Clinton and his very Green Vice President, Albert Gore, the abundant coal reserves in Utah’s Grand
Staircase-Escalante cannot be extracted. Clinton-Gore could not designate fast enough energy-rich areas of the nation as being
off-limits to use, blocking extraction in such areas as Colorado’s Canyon of the Ancients (which has a high potential for oil and gas),
Washington’s Hanford Reach, and Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks (where gas deposits are large).
The greatest “waste” of energy is to fail to use those resources within our own national borders. The attempt to block utilization of
such resources is a deliberate effort to deny Americans access to their own energy, and this is what environmentalism and Democratic
Party political opportunists and Liberal-Left ideologues are all about.
So, let the states battle it out in the courts regarding who has to spend billions to meet EPA clean air standards. It’s not about clean air.
It’s about the Green agenda to drive up the costs of energy in every way possible.
More on Policy Issues Relating to
Energy, Environment, & Natural Resources
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past col- umns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Na- tions vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2003 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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