Cleaner Coal, an Oxymoronic Move by Big Energy
*** Update *** Only 3 of the plants may be built if the TXU buyout becomes a reality. Story here– TXU Buyout to Limit New Coal Plants Built
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Why new power plants are being built to burn coal at all, when it’s been proven to be the worst offender for our environment is beyond me. But they will be built, and in order to supposedly pacify us greenies, they’re building plants that are either ‘capture ready’ or ‘capture capable’ and will be made to burn pulverized “cleaner” coal. The problem is that neither ‘capture ready’ or ‘capture capable’ guarantee that the carbon will be captured or diverted to safe paths away from the atmosphere. In other words, it’s all just smoke and mirrors, pun intended. And why aren’t the plants being built to perform capture now, instead of being ‘capture ready’ or ‘capture capable’? They say that the technology is in its infancy and shouldn’t be built until it’s more capable since it will increase energy costs. Oh, that’s brilliant. What about the cost to our environment, and added burden on our health care system? Those costs don’t count??? There’s also no reason not to “learn on the ground” while building the systems. So what if the first couple aren’t as efficient at capture? They’ll still be better than a ‘capture ready’ system that doesn’t yet capture any carbon, and continues to contribute to Global Warming.
Though, of course, the more practical alternative is to sock the dough into other alternative sources of energy entirely. Tidal power? Wind power? Solar power?
Technorati Tags: Coal, Power, Renewable energy, Carbon, Environment, Global Warming
