POLITICS AND NATURE

Clean Coal: Boon or Boondoggle

Clean coal technology is touted as a promising advancement towards energy independence and reducing CO2 from the notoriously nasty fossil fuel. So called conservative politicians jump on the clean coal bandwagon like salmon swimming upstream. There’s money in them coal hills for those willing to take a stance for the perpetuation of coal in America’s electrical society.

The problems come with public usage and need of coal. The American Coal Foundation gives the following facts:

56% of the electricity used in the U.S. comes from coal

There’s a 300 year supply, (the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition doubts that figure and puts it at 100 years)

Coalbed methane, a lethal pollutant has been captured at greater levels (from 13.8 billion cubic feet in 1999 to 37.2 billion cubic feet today)

The U.S. exports about 9% of the coal extracted today

The Department of Energy adds:

Over 1400 coal mines exist today

The Coal industry employs nearly 83,000 people

How Dirty is Clean Coal?

Sounds great, right? Digging a bit deeper, though, illustrates the dirty politics and lies running rampant around the nation’s energy program in general and coal in particular. It is hard to question the need for energy in this country. It is also nearly impossible to find when the leadership will learn that environmental destruction comes at a cost and the utter refusal of those in power to take industry leaders to task is astonishing at best.

The media frenzy descended upon small coal towns in 2006 as 47 miners died in accidents caused by the refusal of social discourse to elevate safety above profit. Now, it is likely there are those out there that demean any questioning of the profit motive. Profit is the most powerful mover in society.

To this I say, first, as a Capitalist, this is pure, unadulterated Bullshit fed to society by the greedy and soulless 21^st century profiteers succeeding only until society catches them with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Politics and nature can work together while healthy and just profits benefit all people involved in business ventures.

Subsidizing Existing Industries

Since the Clean Coal Technology program was initiated in 1985, the federal government has paid $2 billion to help the program. President Bush, whose picture is proudly portrayed next to a coal power plant on the DOE website with the caption; “we will promote clean coal technology” (from Feb 14, 2002), built that up to a ten billion dollar investment in clean coal technology.

Some examples of corporate welfare:

Peabody Mustang Clean Coal Project in Milan NM received $19.7 million for a $79 million project

Southern Company Services, along with Southern Power Company, Orlando Utilities Commision, and Kellog, Brown, and Root, received $235 million for a $557 million project

Excelsior Energy Inc. with Conoco Phillips received $36 million for the $2.155 billion Mesaba Energy Project in Hoyt Lakes, MN

Pegasus Technologies and Texas Genco (now NRG Energy, Inc) go $6 million for a $12 billion project to clean an existing coal plant in Jewett, TX.

Funding Secondary Priorities

These are only a handful of $1.3 billion in projects being funded by the feds under the conservative president to whom fiscal discipline is a mantra of the righteous and self sufficient. At the same time, according to the DOE, the Solar America Initiative (SAI) has received $159 million. Future funding for the SAI is planned to be $200 million.

Well, so much for any serious attempt to get solar off the ground. There is a long list of partners in the SAI, much longer than the list of corporate entities benefiting from coal subsidies. Many of these partners look like they are very small organizations and it seems that small amounts of money will provide needed start up capital.

Support of environmentally friendly activities, even those conducted by mega corporate structures, may be a useful tool in furthering research and development but in true capitalism, business entities look to the future, plan, and make payments that will result in greater efficiency in the long run. Yet, the emphasis on helping large energy corporations, which all Americans take advantage of, over nascent technologies which have environmental and social benefits, is a bit seedy.

Digging for Coal, Seeing It in the Skies

Mountaintop mining has received some media attention in the past year or so but not nearly enough to highlight the horrible aspects of one of the most prominent energy proposals out there. Visit the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition’s website to see what goes on with mountaintop mining. You can find it at www.ohev.org and they do a fantastic job of documenting the abuse of land occurring for the benefit of the citizenry in the form of electricity.

Mountaintop mining should be outlawed. Recovery efforts are often a sham. The problem with cheap access at all costs methods of conducting business is that it is a perversion of capitalism. It does not take account of environmental damage and too often, businesses do all they can to avoid extra costs. There must be a better way.

Business can be fragile and it is hard to make decisions that will increase expenses without endangering the bottom line. Yet, there are external costs rarely finding their way into ledger accounts. Environmental politics can be fought over issues with conviction and compassion. Still, it is imperative for enlightened minds to join the fight for the great benefits nature provides.

Politics and nature coincide on deadly ground when irresponsible industries relentlessly attack efforts at protecting the environment over the long term. Industries often take dastardly actions in areas far from social centers so that if one sees what they are doing to the land, it is on television or in a magazine at best. The visions soon leave our heads and we move back to thoughts of what is needed at the store or what errands need to be run. Without nature and politics being connected in a much more stable fashion, how hard will it be to solve the problems relating to energy, its production, and the creation of a healthier, more secure nation will forever be a dream unmet with wishes unfulfilled.

As for the pollution of coal, our major source of energy here in the states, it is well documented. China does not have environmental protection like here on this side of the big water. According to the Associated Press, it takes 5-10 days for pollution from China to reach the United States. Societies of greater affluence gain a greater appreciation for the benefits of environmental protection and the politics of nature become more prominent as people get more stuff. But, at the same time, the way the globalized economy has worked is to outsource the dirtiest, nastiest aspects of the industrial revolution to Third World nations. We need to remember that we have to breath the air we are creating.

Websites:

American Coal Foundation: www.teachcoal.org

Department of Energy: http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/12/22223/5869

Center for Responsive Politics http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=E1210

http://www.earthjustice.org/library/policy_factsheets/WHW_coal_connections_fact_sheet.pdf