King Coal

I was just sitting here, reading about the horrible mine disaster in West Virginia on the Internet when I noticed at the top of the screen, an ad for CLEANCOAL.ORG That's right. Clean coal. Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen or heard of anything that convinces me that there's any such thing as clean coal. I've seen the evidence of coal mining in Northeastern Pennsylvania during the 19th and 20th centuries and the damage left by the coal barrens. I've seen the evidence of the destruction brought about by Mountaintop Removal mining in West Virginia, and we're all seeing what it means to have mines and the new coal barrens ignore common sense safety in the drive to the bottom line. Of course, I understand we can't suddenly, tomorrow morning at 9:15, switch to a clean safe energy source. But isn't it time to get serious about replacing coal as our number one "go to" energy source? Shouldn't we stop wasting money on trying to put lipstick on this pig? Coal is dirty. Coal is dirty to extract. Coal is dirty to burn. Coal is dirty to dispose of the ash. Dirty meaning unhealthy, dangerous, and odorous. Does anybody actually believe coal is their friend? It's like trusting a scorpion. You may think it's interesting. You may be impressed by it's unwavering intent, but eventually it's going to sting you. Well, what did you expect it to do? It might turn out to be somewhat expensive to replace it in the short run, but in the long run, we'll be a lot happier that we did. And, after all, doesn't everybody like a happy ending?