Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process

[cal04]

Source: EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Even as Congressional leaders draft legislation to reduce greenhouse gases linked to global warming, a powerful roster of Democrats and Republicans is pushing to subsidize coal as the king of alternative fuels.

Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years.

With both House and Senate Democrats hoping to pass “energy independence” bills by mid-July, coal supporters argue that coal-based fuels are more American than gasoline and potentially greener than ethanol.

“For so many, filthy coal is a dirty four-letter word,” said Representative Nick V. Rahall, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “These individuals, I tell you, have their heads buried in the sand.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/29coal.html?hp

[Systematic Chaos]

1. And you, Mr. Rahall,

have your head buried up your ass. :grr:

[Cobalt-60]

3. indeed

Coal is is an extraordinarily filthy excuse for a fuel.
It is about the last place on the nation's body for a fresh batch of corporate parasites to bite without interfering with their blood sucking brothers.

[PDJane]

2. That's because coal is a four-letter word........

it's filthy, destructive, and the freshwater fish in the US and parts of Canada are inedible because of mercury poisoning, thanks to coal. I would remind you that mercury jumps the placental barrier and concentrates in the foetus; it is both a neurotoxin and a mutagen.

This is insane. Coal needs to be slammed with environmental costs, especially for mountaintop removal. Where the hell do they think we're going to go when the planet is burning?

[gravity]

4. The dirty four letter word is 'pork'

What do expect that the Representatives from coal producing states to say?

"No, I don't want more jobs and money for my state."

[Captain Angry]

5. I have a question.

Why the hell are human beings still working in coal mines in 2007? Every one of the coal miners should be pulled out of there, and sent somewhere with fresh air and given a cold drink.

The technology and willpower exist to develop, deploy and use renewable clean energy.

I just can't believe that we need to continue to burn materials from millions of years ago so badly that we need to employ humans to dig it out. Most people on earth wouldn't let their family pet in a coal mine. What does that say about what these poor people go through?

[gravity]

6. A man's gotta eat

and we need energy.

[Captain Angry]

7. I know. But...

I like to think that by now we could have had people into safer jobs, and generating energy in other ways.

When I think of coal, I don't think of the year 2007. Or 1907.

I see trains that are SO long, and all filled with coal go by every day. And it's just going somewhere to be burned, and an empty train will head back to the mine. It's just so wasteful.

[gravity]

8. It all comes down to costs

Coal is still one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest ways, to produce large amounts of energy. People are investing in alternatives right now, but the truth is that none can compete on coal when scaled up enough.

It's not wasteful, unless you consider what you are doing on the computer right now wasteful. Everyone reading this online right now believes that the benefits of going on the Internet are worth the small environmental costs of producing the energy to do so.

[Captain Angry]

9. By wasteful, I meant the perpetual burning of nonperpetual product.

We have a never ending railroad from the mines to the coal based power plants.

I would like to see Americans scale down their power use, and the dirtiest power that is no longer needed gets shut off first. A little Utopian for sure, but I do think we have the means to do it.