Get Energy Smart! NOW!

This diary will be a relative short and sweet one. For once, no links. Apologies, no photographs. Just a very simply outline of how the United States could, without Heruclean efforts, eliminate coal-fired electricity from the electrical system by 2030. And, do so while improving the economy.

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It isn’t too often that I turn to the pages of the Wall Street Journal for good news, but let today be a little different.   As per Wall Street Shows Skepticism over Coal, major banks, working with some environmental organizations (including, the much maligned Environmental Defense), are imposing new environmental standards that will make it […]

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According to Washington Post reporting, the coal industry is using an Astroturf organization, the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, to wage a $35 million dollar effort to gain traction in the 2008 Presidential campaign for a more polluting future for America and the Globe.  (Note, this is not how the Post described it, but less […]

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Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste is the title of an article in the 13 December 2007 Scientific American.  This article looks at several decades of published research on waste from nuclear power and waste from coal-fired electricity plants: and the clar conclusion is that coal pollution is more radiactivity.  estimated radiation doses […]

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“Clean Coal” sounds so lovely, doesn’t it?  Sounds like coal that’s just been washed with Woolite or such. It is, in reality, an extremely dangerous and seductive term that obscures the very real pollution that would occur even with “clean coal” electricity production. It is not just LCV that is seeking to influence the Presidential […]

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The Lieberman-Warner “Climate Security Act” (CSA) was passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday.  We (and I, strongly) have been told to shut up and celebrate. A Global Warming Bill is going to be debated on the Senate floor and, in any event, any faults don’t matter since Mr 26% will veto […]

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The New York Times has an interesting article this morning, Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote.  In it is a discussion of how some business communities are striving to gain favorable Administration action in the coming year, to seek to set in stone favorable regulations prior to the inauguration of a Democratic President.  What […]

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In an extremely good (and highly recommended) article, Environmental News Service is reporting that there is some serious cash supporting getting environmental organizations in line behind so-called “Clean Coal” (what should be called: Less Dirty Coal) and massive investments to explore the potential for carbon sequestration.   Carbon sequestration is a long-shot, which puts off implications […]

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For nearly a month, a group of bloggers (including, in a minor way, me) have sought to brought visibility to the havoc and pain that mountain top removal are causing through much of the Appalachians in 30 Days to Save the Mountains. Havoc and pain that is not justifiable on energy requirements, economic, social, health, environmenal […]

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Okay, pessimistic-optimist, realist-idealist are constantly at play in my personal ying-yang struggle. Of course, one shouldn’t be surprised at this, but horse-trading is making Lieberman-Warner weaker as it moves along, not stronger. David Roberts, at Grist, has an important post, Permits for Me but Not for You. Senators Baucus and Warner have secured roughly $4 […]

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