This is reality!?
I was rather shocked when I saw a comerical on TV that was mocking the idea of clean coal technology. I thought, "this must be a joke. Nobody can be this ignorant." I was wrong. There is a organization that is making the statement that there is no such thing as clean coal technology.
Curious as to why these people would claim this, I visited their website. What I found was rather appalling. Clicking on the "The Facts" tab, I was expecting some statistics and evidence to disprove clean coal. Instead, all that was there was misleading quotes about coal energy.
Let's explore some:
"Burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity."
-dirtiest is a pretty subjective term. Nuclear power produces waste that is very radioactive and destructive to the enivronment and, in some peoples' minds, dirtier than coal. The same holds for other forms of energy production.
"The coal industry is spending millions advertising 'clean' coal, but not a single 'clean' coal power plant exists in the US today.
-I am assuming they are making the argument that the money spent on advertisement should be used toward the clean coal technology. Oooo, millions. Millions on promoting the idea of clean coal. Know what the cost of constructing a single power plant and connecting it to the power grid is? BILLIONS. The millions spent in advertising clean coal is to inform people of the potential of clean coal technology so that they will in turn demand their lawmakers to invest tax dollars into it. Also, building a coal plant doesn't take a few months. It takes several years. Since clean coal technology is still in its early development, it takes especially more time and money to get the first plants built and running.
I could go on, but it is difficult to defend against attacks that aren't even really directed at clean coal or have any substance.
This site claims that the coal industry is misleading the Americans public in its advertisements. The coal industry's website is farthest from that claim as possible. There is a feature that lets you see what places in America have projects aimed at developing clean coal and other energy productions technologies and how much money is invested in those projects. Seems pretty transparent to me. They quote such organizations as the EPA as well as ThisIsReality on the state of energy production. While the anti-coal organiztion produces libel, the coal organization produces the statistical facts that over 50% of our electricity is from coal and that renewable resources will never be able to replace coal and match the energy needs of America.
What more is misleading? I have seen other sites use the unequivocal depiction of the cooling tower as emitting polutants in the air. Those cooling towers can't possibly be putting any coal biproducts into the air. All the gas you see coming out of the towers is STEAM. Steam is what generates the electricity. Coal is burned to heat the water to turn a turbine. For the cycle to continue, energy needs to be rejected, so it is condensed through the cooling towers into steam.
ThisIsReality also uses the symbol of a canary and depicts it dieing because of the (misleading) quotes about coal and how dirty it is. How dumb. Canaries were used in coal mining to test for natural gas pockets. They died because of toxic gas, not coal inhalation o anything. If that were the case, there would be no point of having a canary down in a mine in the first place.
I don't deny that burning coal releases biproducts that are harmful to the environment, but for ThisIsReality to unjustly convey clean coal as a pipe dream is an outrage. Both sides are working toward the same thing. It would be wise for ThisIsReality to get their facts straight, no, just get some facts in general, and let the clean coal technology develop so that this problem can go away.
I invite you to visit the respective sites of these organizations so you can see my point of view and prompt you to get educated about this topic and its consequences.
http://www.thisisreality.org/
http://www.americaspower.org/
UPDATE
I did some searching around and found this page:
http://action.thisisreality.org/details
Funny. In their TV spot, the quote at the end says "In reality, there is no such thing as clean coal." However, on this page OF THEIR OWN WEBSITE, they state, "If coal plants capture and safetly store their carbon pollution, coal can be part of America's 100% clean electricity mix." But wait, didn't you just say there is no such thing as clean coal? How can coal be part of the 100% clean mix if there is no such thing as clean coal? Seems a bit hypocritical/confused/like someone got dropped on their head as a baby. The page continues to describe the elements of clean coal technology such as CO2 capture, sequestration, and injection.
This site is making my head explode. Now I know why people use crack; it's to understand "information" on sites like this.
Curious as to why these people would claim this, I visited their website. What I found was rather appalling. Clicking on the "The Facts" tab, I was expecting some statistics and evidence to disprove clean coal. Instead, all that was there was misleading quotes about coal energy.
Let's explore some:
"Burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity."
-dirtiest is a pretty subjective term. Nuclear power produces waste that is very radioactive and destructive to the enivronment and, in some peoples' minds, dirtier than coal. The same holds for other forms of energy production.
"The coal industry is spending millions advertising 'clean' coal, but not a single 'clean' coal power plant exists in the US today.
-I am assuming they are making the argument that the money spent on advertisement should be used toward the clean coal technology. Oooo, millions. Millions on promoting the idea of clean coal. Know what the cost of constructing a single power plant and connecting it to the power grid is? BILLIONS. The millions spent in advertising clean coal is to inform people of the potential of clean coal technology so that they will in turn demand their lawmakers to invest tax dollars into it. Also, building a coal plant doesn't take a few months. It takes several years. Since clean coal technology is still in its early development, it takes especially more time and money to get the first plants built and running.
I could go on, but it is difficult to defend against attacks that aren't even really directed at clean coal or have any substance.
This site claims that the coal industry is misleading the Americans public in its advertisements. The coal industry's website is farthest from that claim as possible. There is a feature that lets you see what places in America have projects aimed at developing clean coal and other energy productions technologies and how much money is invested in those projects. Seems pretty transparent to me. They quote such organizations as the EPA as well as ThisIsReality on the state of energy production. While the anti-coal organiztion produces libel, the coal organization produces the statistical facts that over 50% of our electricity is from coal and that renewable resources will never be able to replace coal and match the energy needs of America.
What more is misleading? I have seen other sites use the unequivocal depiction of the cooling tower as emitting polutants in the air. Those cooling towers can't possibly be putting any coal biproducts into the air. All the gas you see coming out of the towers is STEAM. Steam is what generates the electricity. Coal is burned to heat the water to turn a turbine. For the cycle to continue, energy needs to be rejected, so it is condensed through the cooling towers into steam.
ThisIsReality also uses the symbol of a canary and depicts it dieing because of the (misleading) quotes about coal and how dirty it is. How dumb. Canaries were used in coal mining to test for natural gas pockets. They died because of toxic gas, not coal inhalation o anything. If that were the case, there would be no point of having a canary down in a mine in the first place.
I don't deny that burning coal releases biproducts that are harmful to the environment, but for ThisIsReality to unjustly convey clean coal as a pipe dream is an outrage. Both sides are working toward the same thing. It would be wise for ThisIsReality to get their facts straight, no, just get some facts in general, and let the clean coal technology develop so that this problem can go away.
I invite you to visit the respective sites of these organizations so you can see my point of view and prompt you to get educated about this topic and its consequences.
http://www.thisisreality.org/
http://www.americaspower.org/
UPDATE
I did some searching around and found this page:
http://action.thisisreality.org/details
Funny. In their TV spot, the quote at the end says "In reality, there is no such thing as clean coal." However, on this page OF THEIR OWN WEBSITE, they state, "If coal plants capture and safetly store their carbon pollution, coal can be part of America's 100% clean electricity mix." But wait, didn't you just say there is no such thing as clean coal? How can coal be part of the 100% clean mix if there is no such thing as clean coal? Seems a bit hypocritical/confused/like someone got dropped on their head as a baby. The page continues to describe the elements of clean coal technology such as CO2 capture, sequestration, and injection.
This site is making my head explode. Now I know why people use crack; it's to understand "information" on sites like this.