People, there is no such thing as clean coal
The coal industry wants us all to believe that clean coal will solve our global warming crisis. If that’s the case, then my shit comes out purple. Rolling Stone is on the job, uncovering one of the biggest energy public manipulation campaigns.
Some highlights from Big Coals Campaign of Lies:
Despite record profits, the oil industry knows the end is near and is madly diversifying into wind, solar and other energy sources. The auto industry, which has long opposed solutions to global warming, is so weakened by sinking profits and its shortsighted bet on SUVs that it’s hardly a factor in the debate anymore. But coal knows that global warming represents the end of an era: There is simply no cost-effective way to burn coal without cooking the planet. The industry is currently blanketing the nation with ads for “clean coal,” hoping to dupe consumers into thinking that coal is a 21st-century fuel, but it’s all PR bullshit.
AND
And even if somebody invents a cheap, efficient way to capture CO2 from existing coal plants, you still have to bury it…When you think about what it would mean to bury the CO2 from even a fraction of the coal plants in the world, the scale of this undertaking gets downright absurd.
AND
The trouble with “clean coal,” however, is that it’s just an advertising slogan. The industry’s front group touts the fact that some pollutants from typical coal plants have fallen by two-thirds since 1970, even while the use of coal to generate electricity has tripled. What they don’t tell you is that the industry fought the laws that mandated many of those reductions — and that a big coal plant emits as much carbon pollution each year as a million SUVs.
Don’t expect any solutions out of congress in the near-term. A majority of the big coal hubs in the USA are nestled in key battleground states. It will take the next president, hopefully Obama, to use the bully pulpit to expose big coal’s pack of lies and mandate a reduction in carbon emissions.
My suggestion to big coal…don’t resist change, embrace it! In the meantime, I won’t be paying attention to your ads.
Tags: carbon, coal, congress, obama
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.