Coal-to-liquid: JUST SAY NO!
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Posted on May 29, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions, Fossil fuel dependency, Renewable fuels
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Sorry to scream at you with that headline, but this really needs our attention. You probably know that there are folks on Capitol Hill that are trying to get a fat slice of your tax dollars into the coal industry to develop liquified coal. Their argument is that, since the US is just filthy rich in coal (pun intended), our ticket to energy independence is to turn to coal for our liquid fuels, for diesel for cars and trucks, for Air Force jet engines, and more.
So I ask you to read this article from this morning’s NY Times — its lead story on the front page, Lawmakers push for big subsidies for coal process. And then I am going to ask you to do something about it. The time for massive infusions of public funds to subsidize the fossil fuel industry, and in this case the most damaging of them all, has come to an end. We are being asked not only to fund the technology, but to back up the coal industry’s investments with our money, yours and mine.
There is no shortage of resources on the problems with liquified coal. A couple suggestions: EarthJustice, “Liquid Coal Undermining the Fight Against Global Warming, and “Coal’s False Promise to America,” by the eloquent coal industry critic Jeff Goodell, who writes:
The biggest problem with America’s bounty of coal is not what it does to our mountains or the atmosphere, but what it does to our minds. It preserves the illusion that we don’t have to change our lives. Given the profound challenges we face with the end of cheap oil and the arrival of global warming, this is a dangerous fantasy.
Some big time politicians are involved in this battle, one of them Barack Obama, which means this issue could move quickly to the agenda of the presidential campaigns. 
The industry has huge amounts of money for lobbying, something most of us don’t have. But, for those of us who live in the US (I know many of my readers do not, and I thank you for visiting!), we are constituents of somebody in both the House and Senate, and we need to make our voices heard on this one.
The Democrats so often end up in these contradictions. Speaker Pelosi wants to bring a global warming bill 
to the floor by the Fourth of July, and Obama and Gephardt and many other Democrats what to cut off our mountaintops in Appalachia, foul streams and rivers, contaminate groundwater, and cook the atmosphere until Manhattan is under water and you can take a boat across the boot of Florida.
So let’s walk right into that contradiction, shall we? Tell your Representatives and Senators — not a dime of taxpayer money for the coal-to-liquid industry.
And just to show you the direction where sanity lies, you might read this NY Times article as well: Efficiency, not just alternatives, is promoted as an energy saver. Now here’s a good use of some of our public money — to invest in reducing demand for energy altogether. As it says:
…the easiest way to cut carbon emissions and air pollution is to focus more on efficiency, less on pollution-free generation.
Right - if you want to cut pollution, if you want to reduce dangerous greenhouse gases, produce fewer of them = pollute less = conserve more. Or this: live simpler lives = consume less.
Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?
Technorati Tags: coal-to-liquid, coal industry, dirty coal, energy efficiency
Photo Credit:
Coal River Mountain Watch - Chris Mayda
The Coal Field Communities of Southern West Virginia
National Geographic, Peter Essick
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