Dirty Coal, Dirty Politics

                The dirtiest U.S. coal is becoming the most popular, according to a report from the Bloomberg News. It is, ironically, thanks to tightening emission standards forcing power plants to reduce pollutants. ‘Dirty’ coal has a greater sulfur content and  is found in great quantities in the Illinois Basin. Coal of this type costs less and/or has a higher heat ‘content’.

                Illinois sports the second largest coal reserves in the United States- 104 billion tons- enough to power the country for 163 years at 2014 consumption levels. (Remember ‘the Energy Crisis’? It was a crisis of confidence, creativity and diligence).

                Dirtier coal such as the Illinois Basin’s was left mostly unused after the expansion of the Clean Air Act and limits placed on sulfur dioxide emissions. Utilities then began to install scrubbers to remove the contaminants…or just closed down, as many did. Yet another rule, the ‘Mercury and Air Toxics Standards’, will take effect next year, again forcing coal-fired power plants to comply or go out of business. According to some energy consultants, by the end of this decade 67 gigawatts of coal fired electricity will have been closed down in compliance with the mercury rule. One gigawatt is enough to power 708,400 U.S. households, according to Energy Department data. Do the math. Staggering.

                It is estimated that 100% of U.S. coal plants will have sulfur dioxide removing scrubbers by 2025.

                Under the Obama administration’s new rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions, coal’s share of the country’s power generation will fall to 33% in 2020 and 30% in 2030, compared with what would have been an increase to 41% under existing rules, per EPA figures. Imagine the energy we could produce- and the resultant economic expansion and job creation that would ensue because of lower energy prices- if we didn’t place such an incredible burden on all aspects of our extraction and energy industry!

                Yet, with all the requisite scrubbers installed, any remaining U.S. coal-fired plants will be keen to utilize the cheaper, hotter, dirtier coal.

                Illinois. Renowned for dirty coal and dirty politicians. It seems they both come out on top in the end.

               

                

Is the Climate Right for a Change?

               

                Recently, Climate Change scares/threats have been published, aired, trumpeted and touted at an alarming pace. But what is meant by change? (And why is it no longer called Global Warming)?

              Change is the one constant. In fact I’d say it always has been, but that would be redundant. No one can logically claim to use evidence of ‘change’ alone as proof of anything or any theory, crackpot or not.

                Day into night, summer into fall, fall into winter, the cycles of life. Everything changes. People are born and people die, changing all the while as they age; physically, spiritually and intellectually (except, perhaps, for some climate change scientists).

                Some winters- and epochs- are colder and snowier than ‘normal’ ( we shouldn’t generalize and label!) around these parts, some warmer and drier, some colder and drier, some warmer and wetter. It’s the same anywhere else.

                What is the exact correct period of time to ascertain/determine and measure ‘normal’- or change? Is it a day, a week, a month, a year? Silly, of course not! Ten years then, a hundred, a thousand? Million?  Perhaps a billion years is the correct measuring stick. Does it matter? Yes, and I happen to know it’s  2,014 years. But that’s just me and I am not a scientist. But I digress.

                Cosmically speaking, a nanosecond ago (in the 1970’s) we were terribly worried about global cooling. Now it’s the opposite. Yet the 1930’s were ‘historically’ warm, and this summer has been historically cool across the U.S. Last winter was brutally cold. The farmer’s Almanac predicts this winter to be of similar frigidity. The record high temperature for September 8^th in these parts was 104 degrees in 1931. The record cold temperature for the same date? 26  degrees in 1942. That’s 78 degrees of separation on the same date just eleven years apart.

               According to scientists, the supercontinent Pangaea drifted apart  (for some reason; we weren’t here yet) 250 million years ago or thereabouts. That was change. The ‘Big Bang’ was change on a vast and inconceivable scale.  The Mother of All Changes.

 

                The point? The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) now claims that Illinois alone has enough coal to power the United States for 163 years at 2014 consumption levels!  Think about that. Yet we are being told by certain ‘authorities’ and governmental policy wonks that we can’t use it, have to leave most of it in the ground so we don’t risk exacerbating climate change. Folks, we voted to fundamentally change America- twice- in the past six years. And changed it is. We are poorer, less free, farther from our founding principles and less respected around the world. Cheaper energy would change many family’s lives for the better. In fact, economically speaking, cheaper energy changes everything.

                Let’s change our representatives in Washington in the next two plus years. Let’s deny the climate change fascist’s sycophants in government the power to aid and abet them.

                And let’s utilize something from Illinois that will actually benefit this country…for a change.