Is Coal as Deadly as Obama Claims it is?

by drclarkjensen on May 18, 2012

The political left-with Obama at the center of the fight-attempts to justify their vicious attacks on all carbon based fuels, because they believe that man-made global warming exists, is dangerous to  the earth and can be controlled by government intervention and regulation.  They claim the science surrounding man-made global warming is indisputable and believe there is no room for debate.  They are more than willing to invest our tax dollars in unproven and expensive energy technologies that can not, currently, provide for the energy needs of our nation.  They also don’t seem to care if their strategies work.  They are willing to bankrupt our nation in the process of investing in so-called “green energy” that will really have no significant impact on global CO2 levels anyway.

Is the science in?  Far from it.  The list of scientists who are dissenting from the “green religion” of the left is growing in number rapidly.  The left does not want to acknowledge the existence of those who disagree with Al Gore, but the inconvenient truth for the left is that the American people are waking up and coming to realize that man-made global warming is a hoax.  They are coming to understand that the man-made global warming theory is driven more by political correctness and power hunger than by science.  For a good site to visit that addresses these issues and more visit http://www.globalwarminghoax.com/news.php.

But global warming is not really what I wanted to talk about today.  I wanted to talk about the risks and benefits of coal and coal powered energy.  Does the burning of coal produce toxins?  Yes.  Can those toxins cause health risks?  Yes.  How great are those risks compared to the benefits of coal powered electrical generation?  Let’s talk about it.

Quoting again from Coal-The Rock that Burns:

Coal-fired power plants emit various noxious products, from fly ash (ash too small for filters both in the smoke stack and in our bodies), sulfur and nitrogen oxides, mercury, and many others.  There is little doubt that these emissions can have a deleterious affect on the human body.  The EIA (Energy Information Agency) predicts that for every terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity production in the United States, there are 15 early deaths of those subjected to the plant emissions.  Most of these deaths are elderly individuals who have chronic lung problems and would have life expectancies in the range of five to 10 years longer were it not for the pollutants they inhale.

There you have it.  Coal is too dangerous.  We must stop burning coal.  It kills people!

Wait a minute.  Let’s take a look at the big picture before we jerk that knee.  The article goes on to point out:

But the lost lives aren’t reason enough to prematurely shut down the power plants, because that action would cause a greater death toll.  The effect of depriving a population of reliable sources of electricity is catastrophic.  This can be quantified by examining the average national use of electricity in watts per person, compared to life expectancy in those nations.  (see chart at top of the page. W/Person stands for watts per person by the way.)

What do you notice from the chart?  Could access to energy increase life span and quality of life?  It most certainly can and does.  Again, quoting from Coal-the rock that burns:

Working through the math, we find while 15 people lose an estimated 10 years of life from a TWh of pollution, the benefits of electricity cause 78 people to gain 24 years of life due to a healthier environment and freedom from a lifestyle of drudgery.  So we trade each 150 years of life lost for 1,800 of extended years.

But the libs will say, “Why don’t we eliminate the risk of coal completely and still provide the energy we need with a safer energy source”.  My question to the libs is, how?   With what?  Show us how to do that in a way that is technologically doable, safe, reliable and affordable before you pull the plug on existing proven sources of energy.  Listen one more time:

Maurice Strong, who was a mentor of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, as well as the primary instigator of the global-warming hoax, conceived while he was Secretary General of the  1992 Rio De Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development-the so-called Earth Summit.  Strong summed up his philosophy in an interview with  Nation Review in September 1997:

“Frankly, we may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.”

So there you have it.  These man-made global warming geniuses are willing to put our civilization back into the horse and buggy era because they think coal, oil, gas and any other carbon based fuels are destroying the planet.   Oh, and remember, Libs hate nuclear power plants too.  And they want to get rid of hydro-electric power because it messes up the river environment and interferes with normal migration of fish and birds.  And they don’t want the wind turbines in their back yards.

Does the liberal perspective seem reasonable or logical to you?  That perspective is about as smart as starting a back-fire in your kitchen because your bedroom is on fire.  Go get em libs.  I think you are really on to something here.  Let’s shut down the world right now so we can save it.  Good idea!

Vote for Obama!  He is fixing our world (If by fix you mean the same kind of fix that veterinarians do to fix male dogs, horses and cattle.)

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Obama and the Libs Are Fighting Against Coal, Why?

by drclarkjensen on May 17, 2012

Quoting from The New American, May 7, 2012 issue in the article titled “Sky-high Electric Bills-Courtesy of Obama EPA’s War on Coal” we read, “In December 2011, the Associated Press reported that “32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to shut down and an additional 36 might have to close because of the new federal anti-pollution regulations.”

In another article from The New American dated March 19, 2012  in an article titled, “Coal-the Rock that Burns” we learn:

…there is nearly a 50-percent chance the energy that allows you to see the printed page comes from a coal-burning power plant.  Coal is also essential in iron production and has become a major product of U.S. export.

According to the Energy Information Agency (EIA) of the Department of Energy, approximately 94 percent of coal in the United States is used as boiler fuel for electric power generating plants.  Forty-five percent of the country’s annual four trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity are fueled by coal.

Now, couple that information with these statements by Obama:

“So if somebody wants to build a coal powered plant, they can.  It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted…”

“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” (Candidate Obama, San Francisco Chronicle interview Jan 17, 2008)

“We’re going to have to cap the emission of greenhouse gasses. That means that power plants are going to have to adjust how they generate power… but a lot of us who can afford it are going to have to pay more per unit of electricity, and that means we’re going to have to change our light bulbs, we’re going to have to shut the lights off in our houses.” (Candidate Barack Obama, Iowa PBS interview, November 9, 2007)

But, cap-and-trade did not pass Congress.  What did Obama do instead? Quoting again from “Coal-the Rock that Burns” we read:

Lacking congressional approval, the President has turned to his Environmental Protection Agency to kill coal by way of crippling new regulations just put into effect this year.  Political commentator Mark Whittington noted in a January syndicated column in Voices:

“The effects on the price of electricity of the new regulations will be about the same as the effects on the price of gasoline of the administration’s restrictions on oil drilling.  The president possess the charming idea that he can change the way the United States generates energy by government fiat.  Unfortunately attempting to supplant the market place with central planning always results in economic dislocation that rarely affects the policy makers who institute the  plans to start with…”

The article than goes on to explain:

…between 1980 and 2008, sulfur dioxide ambient levels decreased by 71 percent and overall emissions dropped 56 percent nationwide.  Over the same period , the levels of oxides of nitrogen dropped 46 percent.   Yet even with these historic lows, the EPA rule that took effect on January 1, 2012 requires an additional decrease in power plant sulfur dioxide by 73 percent from 2005 levels and a 54-percent decrease in oxides of nitrogen.

Let me give you one more piece of information from the Sky-high Electric bills article:

EPA’s action will effectively ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants. “  says Dr. Bonner Cohen, senior policy analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.  He explains why that is:

“Under the rule, no new power plant will be allowed to emit more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per gigawatt of electricity produced.  On average, U. S. coal plants emit 1,768 pounds of CO2 per megawatt of electricity.  The rule requires future plants to use, as yet, non-existent carbon capture and control technologies to cut their emissions to the new standard.  With no  technology available to bring down CO2 emissions to the new standard, EPA, in the name of combating climate change, is effectively telling the coal industry, which produces 55 percent of our nation’s electricity, that its days are numbered.”

So let’s summarize what we know so far.  We know that Obama and those of like mind don’t like coal.  They are concerned that coal is going to destroy our climate (or at least they are claiming to believe that man-made global warming is a proven fact and has the ability to destroy humanity).  We also know that Obama intended to put into place a cap-and-trade program that would have penalized those who produced CO2 to any degree.  And we know that Obama used the EPA to punish coal producers when cap-and-trade legislation failed to pass Congress. Finally, we know that Obama and his minions understand that their policies with increase the cost of energy for all of us and they really don’t care about that.

Did you vote for Obama?

Let’s talk about the risks of coal in real terms tomorrow.

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Green Religion

May 16, 2012

Insanity reigns.   The religion of the left was on full display  in Portland Oregon when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently took to the stage to condemn the transport and sale of coal to China.  In the article titled “RFK Jr. decries coal as corrupting at Ore. rally“  We read these words: Speaking at an anti-coal rally [...]

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George Will, Rep Jim McGovern and the Bill of Rights

May 15, 2012

I like George Will.  He has a conservative perspective that matches my perspective most of the time.  Sometimes I don’t agree with him, but those occasions are not frequent.  Recently a George Will column showed up in my local newspaper, the Casper Star Tribune titled, “Mowing down the Bill of Rights“.   The article is worth sharing. [...]

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What is the Link Between Bill Ayers and Barack Obama?

May 14, 2012

I just listened to a video clip of Bill Ayers.  It is short.  You have time to watch it.  Here is the link. In the clip, Ayers says that “America is in decline”…”the game is over”…”Another world is coming, but that doesn’t mean it is a better world.” Who is Bill Ayers, and why should [...]

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