Sunday, January 27, 2008
Boucher needs to wean district off coal
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Gregg Lewis
Lewis is an architect in Salem.
I listened recently to Rep. Rick Boucher's interview on WVTF as he made the case for increased federal investment in clean coal technologies. While there may be local jobs at stake, one might argue that the investment made in Boucher's campaigns over the years by the coal and electric generation lobbies is the impetus for his plan to sponsor federal legislation and use our tax dollars to pursue this research.
Yes, we want jobs, economic development and clean energy. It is worth noting though that there are also substantial economic opportunities in the development of solar energy technologies -- although probably not for the same corporations that have supported Boucher's campaigns over the years.
Boucher explained that we have an estimated 250-year supply of coal right under our feet. I would like to point out that just one power plant -- say, in Wise County -- burning clean coal for 250 years will still emit more than 160 pounds of mercury annually, leaving us with more than 40,000 pounds of devastatingly toxic mercury in our soil, the Clinch River, our groundwater and our bloodstreams. Just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury deposited on a 25-acre lake can make the fish unsafe to eat. I trust that is not the future Boucher has in mind.
So-called clean coal technology (a misleading term at best) only addresses -- and theoretically at that -- carbon emissions and does not begin to address the horrors of the coal extraction process.
Whether we talk about trapped, ill or deceased coal miners or the eco-cide being wrought on Appalachia's mountains, streams and forests in the name of economic opportunity for all, clean coal is still filthy, dangerous and exceptionally harmful to our health and the landscapes many in our region call home. The sun's energy is free. That is both its most promising attribute and the principle reason it hasn't already become our energy source of choice.
Unfortunately, the solar power lobby hasn't yet produced the steady flow of campaign contributions that coal-fired electric generation has. I fear that solar won't really take off until somebody figures out how to get harvesting rights to the sun's energy. If that happens, the Solar Ray Harvesting Industry Association will undoubtedly fund the next generation of political campaigns and we'll have new representatives talking about how we must give those companies more money. After all, if it weren't for the money and the power that money brings , we certainly wouldn't be dumping on our children's future the way we are and will continue to even with clean coal.
The reality is, neither Boucher nor the lobbyists who support him know whether carbon sequestration (pumping carbon dioxide underground where it stays -- forever?) will work. The investment is a gamble and one that even if it pays off will continue to result in unacceptable levels of environmental degradation and human health hazards for Boucher's constituents and everybody else in our region.
I can't help but wonder how a municipality that has its own electric utility wouldn't make its future brighter, cleaner and more economically viable by investing aggressively in the free energy of the future. Imagine our competitive advantage if we could tell the companies we hope to lure here, "come to Southwest Virginia where the energy we consume is 100 percent renewable and free from nasty collateral damage, the air is clear, we can eat the fish we catch without worry, and we can travel our region without witnessing the atrocities of mountaintop removal coal mining."
I realize this may be a little "blue sky" for the hard-scrabbled industrialists of our region, but that doesn't make it any less viable as an alternative for our and our children's future here. If we want to attract future-focused industries to our region, we ought to find a way to make sure the air is cleaner, and our mountains, forests and rivers are protected from those looking to make a buck today at the expense of all of our children.
The real goal of our decision-making should be to find a way to protect and honor all that is good about our region from short-sighted, get-it-while-we-can thinking. A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush -- but if that bird has asthma, black lung disease and no bush to fly back to, who wants it? The future is coming. My vote, for our kids' sake, is for making it bright by making it green.
