Compromising Energy

by
Patrick Whelan


The article entitled The Writing on the Wall posted on The Economist website declares that in order for coal burning power plants to survive in the future is to be compromise with the environmental movement that has reemerged in recent years. The article opens up with a rejection of a proposed coal power plant in Michigan that was rejected on the first of May this year; it is the ninth plant to be rejected this year and the 97th proposal since 2001. The Edison Electric Institute states that the nine coal plants that were rejected this year could have heated five million homes. The six hundred coal plants throughout the country still account for half of the electricity in America according to the Energy Information Administration.

Coal accounts for half of the electricity produced in this country and is estimated to produce half through 2030. The EPA last month declared that the most harmful greenhouse gases is the most harmful to the public health. The declaration by the EPA gives the Obama administration more leverage to pass regulation on reducing the emissions produced by these coal fire plants. Energy companies are starting to take notice of how hard it is to get a power plant started. These companies are starting to comply with the new environmental movement of the twenty-first century.

Companies such as NV Energy is ending a five billion coal plant in eastern Nevada and instead will harness energy from the endless supply from solar energy and other renewable energy sources. Highwood coal pant is planning to build a small natural gas plant and a small wind farm. Other companies are planning on running there coal burning plants strictly on biomass from forest waste. Coal cannot be replaced by alternative energy completely for a very long time. The dream of clean coal is still in its planning stages, but the possibility is still there. The U.S. must develop this clean technology at a faster rate due to the rise in energy consumption and for the economic purpose that the U.S. has an extremely large supply of coal. The compromise between industry and environmentalists is occurring more and more for the sake of two reasons of fighting global warming and building the American infrastructure.