Damage control

The widening war between activists and coal

Posted by David Roberts at 1:05 PM on 17 Jan 2008

Read more about: energy | coal | climate | politics | grassroots activism

According to AP, at least 48 coal plants are being contested in 29 states:

From lawsuits and administrative appeals against the companies, to lobbying pressure on federal and state regulators, the coordinated offensive against coal is emerging as a pivotal front in the debate over global warming.

Music to my ears.

Naturally, the industry forecasts an apocalyptic future where ponies eat puppies and rainbows cry tears of blood:

Industry representatives say the environmentalists' actions threaten to undermine the country's fragile power grid, setting the stage for a future of high-priced electricity and uncontrollable blackouts.

Uncontrollable blackouts?! That would suck.

You know, greens are always getting flack for predictions of doom that don't pan out. How come that narrative doesn't stick to industry, which has forecast catastrophe in response to every single environmental initiative ever?

Meanwhile, guess who's spending more?

Nilles said the Sierra Club spent about $1 million on such efforts in 2007 and hopes to ratchet that figure up to $10 million this year.

Meanwhile, coal interests are pouring even more into a promotional campaign launched by the industry group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices. It spent $15 million last year and expects to more than double that to $35 million in 2008, said the group's director, Joe Lucas.

For story: Damage control
10 Comments | Post a Comment

Counter Attack

The arguments against coal, and further coal plant construction in the US, are numerous and bulletproof. I am outraged and enraged by these plans for further coal expansion. Any additional needed generation can be achieved by conservation, which the bulk of the country hasn't begun to attempt, and utility scale renewables.

$35 million buys a helluva lot of influence in one year, and there needs to be a countervailing program to publicize the lies and distortions this coal industry PR will bring. I'd like to see a "Inconvenient Truth" style documentary focused purely on coal, coal interests, coal PR, and the consequences of its proliferation.

by Alex 77 at 1:39 PM on 17 Jan 2008

electric power reliability

The coal industry will not be complicit in their own demise. They are still in control of national energy policy as evidenced by the gutting of renewable energy provisions in the Energy Act last month by Pete Domenici and the Southern Company. This effectively killed investment in renewable energy. Where was the public outrage over this? It didn't even make the news.
People are more addicted to electricity than oil. If king coal decides to make electric power unreliable, as they did during the deregulation fiasco in California, they can do so and blame the environmentalists and renewable energy.
Economics are not enough to drive the renewable energy market. NanoSolar is now producing Photovoltaics that make electricity more cheaply than coal. They are produced in sunny California and shipped to Germany? Why because the policy is right in Germany.
We need a national referendum supporting Feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. Then we can stop fighting king coal power plant to power plant.

by Solarspike at 2:01 PM on 17 Jan 2008

Grist mentioned in Time as anti-coal...

from a piece about Lester R. Brown's new book, "Plan B 3.O":

The key to Brown's Plan B is winding down our dependence on coal -- the carbon-heavy fuel that the people over at the environmental website Grist like to refer to as "the enemy of the human race."

Maybe someone will do a business seminar one day on the effectiveness of continually calling coal the enemy of the human race.

by Jon Rynn at 3:18 PM on 17 Jan 2008

Times change...

...compared to the opposition new coal plants would've faced nearly 20 or 30 years ago (i.e. nil), back when they were even dirtier, this is quite the delight! Keep it up folks!

by Tasermons Partner at 8:17 PM on 17 Jan 2008

Seriously, David

If Time is picking up the meme ("coal is the enemy of the human race"), then you know the idea is getting out there.

Keep it up! The more we repeat it, the better.

by GreenMom at 10:06 PM on 17 Jan 2008

uncontrollable

I had a horrible thought today. What if all the global warming information, coupled with the declining US dollar and inflation, are being used solely to rip us away from dependence on foreign oil, and to drive the US straight into the arms of coal producers?

The prospect of oil in the previously unreachable areas of the North Pole has sabres rattling in a number of nations...which means there is no intention of turning away from fossil fuels by the powers-that-be. And, unfortunately, the coal folks have more money than the good guys.

All the Best, Furia - http://www.xanga.com/furia_fubar

by FuriaFubar at 4:25 PM on 18 Jan 2008

so, obviously we need to decentralize!

good lord, if i read another hand-wringing "but what can we do?" type statement when Big Power threatens us with blackouts, rising prices, catastrophic whatever, i am going to scream.

solarspike has it exactly right. if utilities in the US were forced to BUY BACK 100% of power generated by every single person in this country, and if the government offered those massive subsidies, grants and tax breaks to individuals instead of huge corporations, within 10 years this nation would be almost entirely decentralized.

it is sooooo irritating to see reporting (and Sierra Club policies) centering all around maintaining utility chokeholds and the "remote generation and long distance transmission" model of the 19th century.

game over, guys - you had a good run, but now you are getting phased out in favor of energy independence, even if it is grid-tied. if you want to work with us, and revolutionize your business model, great. if not, hasta la vista, baby!

let's lobby a little harder for benefits of our TAX DOLLARS to finally come to US!!!

the greenest energy is that which you needn't ever produce.

by stopgreenpath at 11:56 AM on 19 Jan 2008

Yep spike, green

Some power companies are on this voluntarily. Like Xcel. Make the rest join in and this smart renewable grid could be built out to 100% in as little as a decade.

Like the interstate highway system (hopefully Hillary administration policies can add high speed commuter rail to the median) and national electrification, government lead projects, this green grid that carries internet too, can bring the economy back from the brink as FDR's policies did in the great depression.

Instead of Hoover Dam, Al Gore National Wind Farm. hehey.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 12:11 PM on 19 Jan 2008

Consider the SUV as driving us instead......

Consider statistics from the US Energy Information Adminstration that indicate the world's maximum production of crude oil and natural gas liquids occurred May 2005 at 82.09 million barrels per day. In other words, the most oil that was ever pumped out of the ground occurred 19 months ago. The Arctic doesn't have the geology which will change that trend. It is running out of oil which will drive us into the arms of the coal producers.

by JeffB at 5:24 PM on 19 Jan 2008
[ Parent ]

High Standards

Part of the problem is people's standards for electricity are so unattainably high. Everybody uses so much electricity, and always wants it on. 35 years ago -- in the early 1970s it was not uncommon to have regular brown outs in New York City on hot summer days. Now they are extremely rare even on the hottest days.

There also was little to no pollution controls on power plants in the early 1970s. People still had no idea on how to control nitrogen oxides from power plants in that era, and sulfur emission control was still pretty limited.

There is no question that we could make the kind of change we made in the 1970s and 1980s with both emissions and reliability if we put some effort and money into it. How dirty are major cities where in the early 1970s (we still used PCBs, lead, and asbestos everywhere then) compared to now -- which is truly amazing.

Does anybody even remember how the skeptics said the Clean Air Act of 1970 would bankrupt the country and be impossible to implement? Or that it would be impossible to lead out of gasoline, or DDT off the fields?

I think if we compare 1970 to 1990s, and the progress we made, there is a lot of hope for a clean energy and conservation in our country.

by nycowboy at 8:17 AM on 22 Jan 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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