Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Coal
I don't like coal or the coal-mining industry. Coal is dirty, it pollutes, and it is dangerous to mine.
In DC I have seen a lot of ads in the metro made by the coal industry touting it as a clean alternative to fossil fuels ... that's kind of like trying to drink less coffee by taking up crack. It's just dumb. Obviously coal is cleaner today than it was 100 years ago, and it very well may even be cleaner than fossil fuels, but it seems counterproductive to me to invest time and money to make an old and dirty fuel source marginally less dirty than to go for the Hail Mary of renewable clean energy.
I think it is a crime how the energy companies have so successfully portrayed those that give a shit about the environment as tree-huggers and fanatics. Yes, people lose their jobs sometimes because of environmental regulations. [Although a shitload more lose their jobs so that businesses can be more profitable -- that's not a criticism, just an observation.] Protecting the environment is a cost-benefit analysis that we as a society have to enter into -- how much productivity/profit/investment/etc. are we willing to forgo/make/tolerate/etc. in order not to destroy the Earth.
Unfortunately, it is a difficult calculus to make because while the benefits of protecting the environment are distant and unclear, the costs are immediate and obvious. Digging up pristine land in Alaska may lower gas prices a nickel today, but at what cost in 1,000 years? It's the same reason why the levees in New Orleans were insufficient or why idiots with boxcutters could bring a nation to its knees. It's not exactly sexy to go to the voters and say, "Hi I'm Johnny Politician and I'm running for mayor. I plan on raising your taxes so that we can spend billions on making our levees 10 feet higher. You know, just in case." Or, "Hey, asshole type-A business traveler, would you mind if I inconvenienced you for 10 minutes more on a security line? Oh and could take your shoes off for me too?"
To rely on coal to reduce our long-term reliance on oil would be very stupid, but it will probably happen anyway. Coal is cheap and we have a lot of it -- horray for American energy!!
|
In DC I have seen a lot of ads in the metro made by the coal industry touting it as a clean alternative to fossil fuels ... that's kind of like trying to drink less coffee by taking up crack. It's just dumb. Obviously coal is cleaner today than it was 100 years ago, and it very well may even be cleaner than fossil fuels, but it seems counterproductive to me to invest time and money to make an old and dirty fuel source marginally less dirty than to go for the Hail Mary of renewable clean energy.
I think it is a crime how the energy companies have so successfully portrayed those that give a shit about the environment as tree-huggers and fanatics. Yes, people lose their jobs sometimes because of environmental regulations. [Although a shitload more lose their jobs so that businesses can be more profitable -- that's not a criticism, just an observation.] Protecting the environment is a cost-benefit analysis that we as a society have to enter into -- how much productivity/profit/investment/etc. are we willing to forgo/make/tolerate/etc. in order not to destroy the Earth.
Unfortunately, it is a difficult calculus to make because while the benefits of protecting the environment are distant and unclear, the costs are immediate and obvious. Digging up pristine land in Alaska may lower gas prices a nickel today, but at what cost in 1,000 years? It's the same reason why the levees in New Orleans were insufficient or why idiots with boxcutters could bring a nation to its knees. It's not exactly sexy to go to the voters and say, "Hi I'm Johnny Politician and I'm running for mayor. I plan on raising your taxes so that we can spend billions on making our levees 10 feet higher. You know, just in case." Or, "Hey, asshole type-A business traveler, would you mind if I inconvenienced you for 10 minutes more on a security line? Oh and could take your shoes off for me too?"
To rely on coal to reduce our long-term reliance on oil would be very stupid, but it will probably happen anyway. Coal is cheap and we have a lot of it -- horray for American energy!!
|
