Of Politicians And Skunks.

DID YOU KNOW that there has been sixteen new traditional coal fired generation plants built since 2008 and another sixteen are under construction in the United States? They'll have an output of about 18,000 megawatts of power. They'll produce 125 million tons of greenhouse gases a year. Now, these aren't plants that will use the oft touted 'clean coal' technology. Ya know why they won't or don't use that technology? Because it doesn't exist. So what does that mean to newer, cleaner power generating facilities? It means that for many years they won't happen. The claim is still made that it would drive up the cost of electricity, but these new coal plants are driving up the cost of energy by as much as 30%. And that doesn't consider the true cost in terms of waste management over the long term or the cost of damage to the environment in extracting the coal from the ground in the first place. So why do we continue to put up with this nonsense? Politicians use scare tactics to get reelected or elected. Just enough politicians make these untrue claims to kill any legislation aimed at exposing the true costs of our carbon based, fossil fuel energy dependence. That's right. Almost anytime you hear of a problem that should be easy to resolve, that isn't getting resolved, you can bet there's a politician or two behind it. That's not a skunk in the woodpile, it's a politician. Very possibly your favorite one.