Posts Tagged by coal industry
Renewables Vs. Coal – Can't We All Just Get Along?
| October 4, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Frequent contributor Sonny Carri wrote a long and eloquent comment about the coal industry, which I summarize here:
Let’s work to get them on board, not be an adversary. Change requires coming together, not schism.
Very thoughtful stuff as always, Sonny. In response, let me say that I honestly don’t see change without push-back; I see entrenched interests that are braced for the fight of a lifetime, and I doubt there is any sincere interest in “coming together” whatsoever. It’s funny you mention this, as we’ve had numerous internal discussions about not positioning the HyPEG as a replacement for coal, so as not to create any more enmity than possible. After going ’round and ’round on the subject, I just don’t see this. It’s not that I’m a combative person by nature; I’m not. It’s just this: The coal industry may be evil (or whatever you would call “profits first, people a distant second”), but they’re most definitely not idiots. In fact, big energy has hired some of the brightest minds on the planet — and guess whom they’re gunning for?
As I may have told you, I moderated a panel at the AltCarExpo out here in CA, and I stayed on the floor both days, talking ultimately with hundreds of people. Most telling to me were conversations I had with expatriated Europeans about electric vehicles, several of whom told me, “Sorry, not for me. As long as your power here in the US is so heavily rooted in coal — and even worse, nuclear — EVs really aren’t green at all.” Now that’s not completely correct, but it sure does show the difference between the Europeans — who are working hard to clean up the energy business — and us in the US, who, while we may we working hard, have yet to make much progress.
Let’s just call a spade a spade, and get everyone to pay the true cost of his power source. I don’t want subsidies for hydrokinetics; I just want coal to pay the true cost of ripping up our planet and poisoning our people. Once that’s in place, I’m happy to just let the chips fall where they may.
