Sherry Chandler » Cost of coal
Cost of coal
from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.:
Last evening’s GOP CNN/YouTube debate and the Democratic presidential debate on November 15 were jointly sponsored by a coal industry coalition comprised of mining, railroad and utility interests.
Their high profile civic involvement is designed to further confuse American voters about coal’s true cost to our society. Many of the Republican candidates have endorsed massive new subsidies for King Coal and dutifully parrot industry talking points including earnest promises of cheap “clean coal.” Given that climate change is the most urgent threat to our collective survival, it is shocking that no debate moderator has pressed the candidates to clearly state their positions on “clean coal.”
In fact, there is no such thing as “clean coal.” And coal is only “cheap” if one ignores its calamitous externalized costs. In addition to global warming, these include dead forests and sterilized lakes from acid rain, poisoned fisheries in 49 states and children with damaged brains and crippled health from mercury emissions, millions of asthma attacks and lost work days and thousands dead annually from ozone and particulates. Coal’s most catastrophic and permanent impacts are from mountaintop removal mining. If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during my many trips to the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country.
Well now you can visit coal country without ever having to leave your home. Every presidential candidate and every American ought to take a few seconds to visit an ingenious new website created by Appalachian Voices, that allows one to tour the obliterated landscapes of Appalachia.
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1 Comment
1. THERE’S NO SUCH THI&hellip replies at 5th December 2007, 8:05 am :
[...] In 2007 I have spent $193.51 on electricity. Not a large amount as utility bills go, but thanks to Sherry Chandler I now have a way of not only knowing where the coal that produced that electricty came from, but I can also see the environmental damage that mining that coal wrought. I need to reduce my carbon footprint further. [...]
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