Posts Tagged by mercury
Level Playing Field for Renewable Energy
| December 8, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I’m always delighted when I come across supporters of the idea that I’ve referred to as the “level playing field” for renewable energy. That is, I’m not asking for a subsidy for solar, wind, geothermal, etc. Rather, I’m asking that producers and consumers of fossil fuels simply pay the full cost of these forms of energy, including the costs of healthcare (caring for victims of the mercury, arsenic and other pollutants that cause lung damage and birth defects) as well as cleaning up the vast environmental damage. If we were somehow able to get such a system in place, we’d make the migration to renewable energy in the blink of an eye.
Here’s an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times that speaks to the very issue. Given the watered down discussions in Copenhagen, I think it’s more than a little relevant.
Cleaning Up Government – An Easy Task?
| October 12, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
As I have often written, cleaning up government is integral to success in the migration to renewables. Big Energy routinely spends millions of dollars influencing legislation that will protect itself from the incursion of new technologies that will disrupt their profit stream. And in an effort to comprehend the enormity of the task in front of all us in government reform, I ask you to watch a video: a session of the House Government Reform Committee.
At first clance, this may appear a bit off topic. Why concern ourselves with the corruption from Big Pharma? Well, to me, it’s just another way of coming face to face with corporatocracy and the corruption it brings: how powerful and evil it is, and ultimately, how difficult it will be to eradicate.
Here we have the pharmaceutical industry paying off one or more representatives to insert favorable, protective language in a bill that has nothing to do with pharmaceuticals at all and — best of all — must be passed on an emergency basis and therefore cannot be reread in its final form before the vote that will pass it into law. Here is all the protection Big Pharma will need from their malfeasance in profiting from faulty, dangerous vaccinations, inserted at the last minute, in the middle of the night, immediately before congress approves the Homeland Security Act. Now millions of families with brain damaged kids will be denied the recourse to which they would have been entitled, because of the brazen criminality of the pharmaceutical industry.
I think the most common reaction to the video is anger. But when you’ve calmed down, ask yourself: what’s the magnitude of the task in front of us in cleaning this up? What will it take to rid ourselves of a system that has become so rotten, so brutally indifferent to the rules of fair play and decency, so cold in the face of the human suffering it leaves in its wake? Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Guest Blogger Doesn’t Like The Lies from the Kentucky Coal Industry
| July 28, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Guest Blogger Mike Brace is working hard to develop renewable energy sources that can replace coal. Here’s why. He writes:
Here’s news from the Associated Press called “State officials issue fish advisories in Kentucky.” They say “High levels of mercury or polychlorinated biphenyls — PCBs — found in some fish species could pose a health hazard to women who are pregnant or of childbearing age and small children. People who are at risk should limit their consumption to about one meal per month, according to the state health department. Environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, said the state’s response seemed to be appropriate. High mercury levels can be attributed in part to coal-fired power plants as well as some natural sources.”
Is there really such thing as “natural sources” for mercury pollution? As far as I know we don’t mine or process mercury with in US borders.
This is a crock.
PS: Here’s a graphical depiction or “infographic” of the history of renewable energy.
