WHEN it comes to building the power plants that generate the
electricity Americans need, the Not In My Back Yard crowd is now
screaming Not in Anybody's Back Yard.
A coalition of anti-coal groups contends it has scored 65 victories
over coal in the past three years, reported Judy Pasternak of the Los
Angeles Times.
WHEN it comes to building the power plants that generate the electricity Americans need, the Not In My Back Yard crowd is now screaming Not in Anybody's Back Yard.
A coalition of anti-coal groups contends it has scored 65 victories over coal in the past three years, reported Judy Pasternak of the Los Angeles Times.
Any time a proposal is made to build a new plant, the coalition assigns a lawyer to stop the project.
The coalition includes the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Integrity Project.
The group admits it is obstructionist.
"We hope to clog up the system," said David Bookbinder, the Sierra Club's chief climate counsel. "It's putting pressure on Congress to put together a comprehensive plan."
Huh? Despite spending billions of dollars on research through the Department of Energy over the past 30 years, alternative energy sources are years away from being able to carry the load in the United States.
And many of the alternatives offered are destructive of the environment.
Wind turbines violate the land, kill birds and are useless on windless days. Hundreds of square miles of land could be covered with solar cells without making an appreciable difference in reliable energy supply.
Knee-jerk opposition to any coal plant anywhere will carry a heavy price. Reducing the supply of electricity would hurt businesses and individuals, and low-income people would feel the pain first.
The U.S. economy would suffer as other nations, China for example, gain a competitive advantage.
What those who protest coal overlook is that if electricity could be generated more cheaply and more easily, the power companies would have switched to that technology a long time ago.
The nation's power supply should not be controlled by obstructionists in federal courts who bear no responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
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