I got an e-mail from this Environment Ohio group; they are trying to gather signatures for a petition supporting the new EPA rules which will basically be the end of new coal power stations. As this is a national issue I think anyone can send a message of support to the EPA; I encourage you to go do so.
If you need further motivation beyond the general, obvious situation of the many dangers of fossil fuel dependency, I offer this quote from coal company Peabody Energy’s press release protesting the new policy:
…the rule puts the backbone of America’s electricity base at risk, by failing to recognize the outstanding positive externalities that coal-fueled electricity provides, leading to significant benefits for health…
Yes, that’s right, coal-fueled electricity generates positive externalities, in multiple areas including your health! Huh, not exactly what I had heard. Honestly, this press release is an absolute astonishing mess of one nonsensical line of gibberish after another. The above excerpt is probably the biggest howler, but there are a lot of contenders. The other best bit, I would say, is the fact that in the same press release they moan about overly harsh anti-pollution measures and how “carbon capture and storage technologies are promising but not yet commercially available,” while also referring to the threat of “greenhouse gas emissions” as a reason why natural gas should not be considered safe, and then closing out with the boilerplate line that they are “a global leader in clean coal solutions.” Oh, and let’s not forget coal’s “environmental improvement” which is unmatched by any other fuel. Gollllllllll-ee!
Holy fuck, I mean honestly Meg Gallagher, you really feel comfortable putting your name on this drivel? Environment Ohio makes a very valid point that the coal industry, like big oil, is going to throw every resource they have at killing even minor, toothless little feints toward an energy policy which is not of, by and for fossil fuel companies. I’m on my way to the Y in a few minutes, and if I don’t see at least one ad of the “vote4energy” astroturf campaign type, I will be pretty surprised. (And I don’t work out that long, either.) And I have to worry that we’re just going to lose this fight because they have a lot, lot, lot more money. If the Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, NRDC, etc., could blanket the airwaves with their messages, I’m pretty sure they would; as it is their combined budgets are probably little more than pocket change relative to just Exxon-Mobil.
Still, despite Peabody’s dire warning about “the American consumer [coming] under the same price pressure at the plug that they now have at the pump” I don’t think the coal industry has anything like the super-sensitive pressure point which the oil industry does. The electricity industry just doesn’t work the same way. And so it does at least seem possible that America is on its way, slowly and awfully late, to a post-coal economy, at least if we imagine that this EPA policy amounts to even a fraction of the symbolic significance which the coal industry seems to believe that it does, and if Obama wins a second term.
Because, I gotta say, no matter how much money they have or how freely they spend it, if they can’t do any better than quantum gobbledygook which would shame Mitt Romney and which even a child could see through… I feel just slightly optimistic that their money isn’t going to buy much public outrage on their behalf.
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