It’s the Same ‘Coal’ Song

Coal is to America as oil is to Saudi Arabia. Coal power is also one of the least expensive and most abundant fossil fuels that we in America possess.

It is also historically known as a ‘dirty’ form of energy. We all have visions of tall smokestacks belching soot out of the top into the clear, blue skies above. The operative word here is ‘historically’.

Just as many things have changed since the late sixties, so have coal-burning technologies. The latest advances in clean coal technologies are reducing greenhouse emissions to a slight fraction of their predecessors. Studies suggest that the emission levels are lower than today’s traditional oil-fired power plants.

With the abundance of coal and the emerging clean coal technologies, does it not make sense to build power plant that provides the most cost-effective electric supply in our country? Let’s check with Georgia’s Fulton County Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore.

Last week, Judge Moore issued a decision that invalided a Georgia state permit to build a new $2 billion dollar 1200 megawatt coal power plant. Along with providing jobs to one of the state’s poorest counties, the plant would also generate enough excess power for the local counties and the states of Florida and Alabama.

Does this amount to a hill of beans to Judge Moore? Not really. It seems that the judge felt that the CO2 emissions from the plant would contribute to global warming, and therefore would be in violation of the Georgia’s Environmental Protection Agency. Maybe the images of smokestacks were dancing in her head as she issued her 19-page ruling, ignoring the technological advances in coal over the past three decades.

As we have seen for far too long, activist judges impose their will on us and society at large. I almost expect to hear someone’s talking points proclaim ‘we can’t mine our way out of this’. If technology has been one of the most active and successful sectors over the past thirty years, it would make perfect sense that energy technology has come along for the ride.

And for activist judges during the same thirty years, it’s just the same ol’ song.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Fulton judge invalidates permit for coal plant
USDOE: Clean Coal Technology and the President’s Clean Coal Power Initiative