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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Election -- Coal

Another area where there are clear differences between the Republicans and the Democrats is on the issues relating to the use of coal to generate power in America. Let's start with a few basic facts:

1) The United States has larger deposits of coal than any other country in the world.

2) Right now, just under half of all the electrical power in America comes from burning coal. Nuclear power and natural gas generate most of the rest. Hydroelectric power is the only other significant source of electricity. Oil is used for less than one percent of power generation. Wind and Solar, likewise, account for a tiny fraction of the electric power generated in America.

3) Over the last forty years, the power plants that burn coal have been repeatedly upgraded to meet very stringent standards on pollution set by the EPA. For example, about 99% of the emission of dust and other particulate matter from coal plants has been eliminated. Coal is now an environmentally friendly fuel.

4) Because nearly all pollutants that come from coal have been eliminated, any steps required to further reduce pollution are extremely expensive. Further, after great expense, the benefit in cleaning up the environment of such steps are slight.

5) Since taking office, president Obama has taken steps by himself and through the EPA which make the continued ability of most coal plants to function problematic. Plant after plant is being shut down. Few new power plants are coming on line. In essence, the ability of America to generate power is being destroyed in the name of the environment even though the changes have little, if any, effect on the environment.

There is one last fact which cannot be overlooked. Obama's drive to destroy the coal industry is costing America millions of jobs. Obviously, there are hundreds of thousands of miners who are or soon will be out of a job. But that is not all. Many thousands more people who work on railroads that transport coal or barges that also move coal or many other coal dependent industries will also lose their livelihood. Even worse, the cost of power generated in the USA is rising as coal is being pushed aside. That means higher power costs for all Americans and, especially, for American manufacturing companies. The end of coal to generate power will just send more America jobs to China and elsewhere where the costs of power are lower.

Mitt Romney has promised to stop the war on coal and to promote the production of American energy. Romney has pledged that he will not allow coal plants to backslide to the environmentally questionable status of years ago, but he also will not inflict requirements on the industry which will just drive it to close down, Obama's ultimate goal.

On the issue of coal, Romney's position is clearly favorable.




1 comment:

Unknown said...

I do think you ought to look at the numbers involved - the capital cost of a coal fired plant is orders of magnitude over that of a natural gas plant, and a natural gas plant does burn cleaner. Whinging about coal workers losing jobs is similar to whinging about buggy whip makers losing their jobs when the automobile came to town. Change does happen. It isn't always pleasant in the short run, but usually works out.