Posted: Nov 15, 2012 3:47 pm
Coal is NOT cheap power and if the true costs were calculated you'd be out of a job. JB
http://www.skepticalscience.com/true-co ... power.html
damn right it doesn't
Emissions are going down in many areas despite population growth and places like Sweden are well on their way to carbon neutral in a couple of decades.
You are destined for failure in this campaign - with Obama in power coal is dead centre in the gunsights.
Ontario will eliminate our last coal plant in 2014 and save millions in healthcare costs.
Get used to it - your horizon approaches.
Were is not for China's need to industrialize ( rapidly approaching saturation ) the writing on the wall would be a lot clearer.
Here's comparative costs when downstream costs are factored in and you can bet there are lawsuits coming.
That's what it took to get S02 reduced to manageable levels.....up next...C02 and coal is the Ace of Spades in that hunt to kill deck.
Bottom LineUltimately it's a significant problem that we rely so heavily on coal to meet our energy needs due to its artificially low market price. It's like eating junk food for every meal. It's cheap, it tastes good, but it's not healthy and eventually you'll pay the price through poor health, high medical bills, and a shortened lifespan.
We may not pay the costs of climate change, lost biodiversity, air and water pollution, adverse health effects, etc. up front, but we do have to pay them eventually. We need to follow the recommendations of Epstein et al., transform our energy infrastructure, and move away from our dependence on coal and other fossil fuels.
Coincidentally, the US EPA has just proposed national standards for mercury, arsenic and other toxic air pollution from power plants. These standards will "require many power plants to install widely available, proven pollution control technologies to cut harmful emissions of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases, while preventing as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year." This is a good step in ensuring that some of the externalities discussed in this article are internalized and taken into account. Coal power plants were exempted from meeting the requirements of the Clean Air Act until 2000, and these new EPA standards will finally ensure that air pollution from coal power plants is regulated, rather than being freely released into the atmosphere.
Gilles at 21:45 PM on 18 March, 2011
"If we include the coal externalities, it increases the levalized costs to approximately 28 cents per kWh, which is more than hydroelectric, wind (onshore and offshore), geothermal, biomass, nuclear, natural gas, solar photovoltaic, and on par with solar thermal (whose costs are falling rapidly). Suddenly coal doesn't look like such a good deal."
http://www.skepticalscience.com/true-co ... power.html
damn right it doesn't
Emissions are going down in many areas despite population growth and places like Sweden are well on their way to carbon neutral in a couple of decades.
You are destined for failure in this campaign - with Obama in power coal is dead centre in the gunsights.
Ontario will eliminate our last coal plant in 2014 and save millions in healthcare costs.
Get used to it - your horizon approaches.
Were is not for China's need to industrialize ( rapidly approaching saturation ) the writing on the wall would be a lot clearer.
Here's comparative costs when downstream costs are factored in and you can bet there are lawsuits coming.
That's what it took to get S02 reduced to manageable levels.....up next...C02 and coal is the Ace of Spades in that hunt to kill deck.