Media Matters put out a video this past week with clips of all the recent FOX News mentions of a global warming name conspiracy. The Fox 'conspiracy' is that 'liberals' stopped calling it global warming and started calling it climate change. Little did they realize, apparently, that the man responsible for the partisan polarization over the terminology of climate change vs. global warming is none other than FOX News contributor Frank Luntz...
read moreSay Goodbye and Adios "Clean Coal"
Say Goodbye and Adios "Clean Coal"
A few days ago, the ACCCE released a new, stunningly vague advertisement called "Adios," that is somehow supposed to put America's mind at ease, and/or scare us about a future without coal. Here's the video, and the text:
Coal kills jobs: 
If the ACCCE has their way, you might not be able to count on enjoying those casual football games with the guys: 
Your kids' health is endangered by emissions from coal fired power plants: 
The economy is already in pretty bad shape. You and your family will be hit with even worse economic difficulties if "clean coal" research goes forward: 
The ACCCE warns you that you "may have to say 'goodbye' to the American way of life [you] know and love..." unless the US turns to "clean coal" as an energy source. That's a myth:
We wish we could say "farewell" to our dependence on foreign energy, and we'd like to say "adios" to rising energy costs.
But first, we have to say "so long" to our outdated perceptions about coal. And we have to continue to advance clean coal technologies to further reduce emissions including the eventual capture and storage of CO2.
If we don't, we may have to say "goodbye" to the American way of life we all know and love.
Clean coal. America's power.
It's only 32 seconds long, but could easily be condensed to less than a second:
We're starting to get a little desperate here, please, please believe this.
Here are some stills from the ad, with some of the coal hard facts.
Think you'll live to a comfortable old age with more coal fired power plants around? Think again:
According to the American Lung Association, 24,000 people a year die prematurely because of pollution from coal-fired power plants. And every year 38,000 heart attacks, 12,000 hospital admissions and an additional 550,000 asthma attacks result from power plant pollution.
Asthma is the leading chronic illness among children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma accounts for 14 million lost days of school missed annually, and asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children younger than 15 years of age.
Coal-fired power plants release over 40% of total U.S. CO2 emissions, which contribute to global warming, which will in turn profoundly affect US agriculture. A recent USDA report (pdf) says:
The [draft] report finds it is “very likely” that climate change and historic land management practices will cause major disruptions to western rangelands and the livestock industry that relies on them. “The evidence… over the past two centuries provide indisputable evidence that warming, altered precipitation patterns, and rising atmospheric CO2 are virtually certain to have profound impacts on the ecology and agricultural utility of rangelands.”2
Coal kills jobs: Despite coal industry claims that coal mining creates lots of jobs, the truth is that coal mining employment has been declining for decades, due to increased use of machinery instead of manpower.
In West Virginia alone, coal mining employment has plummeted from 126,000 miners in 1948 (who produced 168 million tons of coal), to just 15,000 miners employed in 2005 (who, with the help of machinery, produced 128 million tons of coal).
If the ACCCE has their way, you might not be able to count on enjoying those casual football games with the guys: Residents of coal mining communities have increased risk of developing chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that in the 14 counties where the biggest coal mining operations are located residents reported higher rates of cardiopulmonary disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, diabetes, and lung and kidney disease.
Your kids' health is endangered by emissions from coal fired power plants: [T]he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the amount of mercury in the atmosphere is estimated to have increased by 200% to 500% since the beginning of the industrial revolution, when coal use skyrocketed. The US Department of Energy (DOE) projects that mercury emissions will continue to rise. This mercury quickly enters the aquatic food chain, transforming into methylmercury which is blamed for a litany of neurological impacts in infants and young children during their most vulnerable periods of brain and nervous system development.
The economy is already in pretty bad shape. You and your family will be hit with even worse economic difficulties if "clean coal" research goes forward: The U.S. government continues to aggressively fund coal-related projects despite all that is known about coal’s impacts on health, climate and the economy.
The Department of Energy is currently seeking $648 million for “clean coal” projects in its 2009 budget request, “representing the largest budget request for coal RD&D in over 25 years.”
The ACCCE warns you that you "may have to say 'goodbye' to the American way of life [you] know and love..." unless the US turns to "clean coal" as an energy source. That's a myth: As author Jeff Goodell reveals in his book “Big Coal,” the claim that the U.S. has 200 or 250 years of coal left is “based on old studies that haven't been updated since the '70s. Those studies themselves were based on studies from the '20s and '30s.”
US coal production has already peaked. Turning to more coal-fired power plants for our energy will not decrease our dependence on foreign oil.Goodell points out that “we've been mining coal in this country for 150 years -- all the simple, high-quality, easy-to-get stuff is gone. What's left is buried beneath towns and national parks, or places that are difficult, expensive and dangerous to mine.”
So, a warning to US television viewers: think before you believe what you see and hear in that ACCCE advertisement. The images are pleasant and happy, but they do not represent the reality of shifting US energy sources to coal-fired power.
Yes, we should be saying adios and goodbye... to coal.
Check out what Energy Blog has to say about the ACCCE Goodbye Clean Coal ad.
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Comments
Well
Well, there is one type of clean coal.
The type that you don't burn, and you don't dig up.
Zero emissions! :P
Huh!
In an April 2008 white paper entitled, "Natural Gas and Electricity Costs and Impacts on Industry", the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) reported that opposition to new coal-based power plants is leading to a generation capacity shortage in many areas of the country and endangering U.S. energy security. The opposition is also inducing a "dash to gas" and quickly causing a rise in natural gas prices at a time when federal climate change legislation could immediately lead to a doubling of natural gas consumption for power generation. This legislation would increase the country's dependence on foreign energy sources in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) causing both natural gas and electricity prices to increase dramatically.
re:
Guess we'll all live in the dark then!
Alarmist
Now that's what I call alarmist.
"If we don't, we may have to
"If we don't, we may have to say "goodbye" to the American way of life we all know and love."
Now there's a contradiction.. Love America? The Socialist Left have been trying to destroy the US at every opportunity that comes around.
They can't wait for the Obama or McCain's to get elected so they can finish it off with the Cap and trade Scam.
Hey Wilbert
And yet you're perfectly fine with the fact that we're spending $20 million dollars a minute on Iraq.
http://greyfalcon.net/iraqvsenergy.png
Or that the value of the US dollar is tanking because of the interest incurred by GOP policies that prefer to instead pay taxes with high interest foreign loan debt.
http://greyfalcon.net/doonsbury.png
http://greyfalcon.net/debt2.png
http://greyfalcon.net/canadadollar.png
Care to explain how thats somehow not hurting America?
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/1603
_
Or are you just a Ron Paul zealot who's sold on RobberBaron Capitalism and the corporatization of all functions of state. Where gambling and corruption is the only true measure of worth.
If it's important...
I like Ron Paul (although I think he's profoundly wrong regarding climate). But it shouldn't be important.