A new report from the National Academie examines energy production in the USA.
One could simply infer from the report that green is the way to go. There's a lot of coal in the USA and there is a lot of natural gas - in fact more than we know what to do with. Natural gas is amazingly cleaner.
McClatchy: Report looks at hidden health costs of energy production
Generating electricity by burning coal is responsible for about half of an estimated $120 billion in yearly costs from early deaths and health damages to thousands of Americans from the use of fossil fuels, a federal advisory group said Monday.National Academies: Report Examines Hidden Health and Environmental Costs Of Energy Production and Consumption In U.S.
"There are plants that are very clean out there, and the cost of further controls would not be worth the benefits and you wouldn't want to do anything," she said. However, there are also dirtier plants where the health benefits would outweigh the cost of pollution controls.
3 comments:
Huge new supplies of relatively clean burning Nat.gas are coming available. The problem is the huge investments needed to convert the dirty coal plants to nat. gas. This would create a lot of construction jobs but Goldman and JP Morgan would rather invest their windfalls in China creating jobs for the Chinese. You don't have to look far for the traitors in this country Wall st. is full of them.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. As long as a system is in place that produces 'good enough' and is profitable, the powers that be will maintain it until it collapses. It needs to be rung for all its worth first. Same with coal, the mechanism is there to mine it and burn it, so its too costly to change it to natural gas. When the next Republican president comes into office, there will be a return to the status quo energy system as valuable and unnecessary to change, just as there was a renewed entrenchment into oil and coal and nuclear with Bush.
Your right. The elites won't change anything until it's profitable for them.
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