Ah, our difference is then I have no faith in humanity.Our thoughts march together on this, I have no interest in giving more power to the man made global warming high priests. Many of whom are more interested in wealth redistribution and globalism than AGW. Which is not to say efforts to clean up our air and water should be ignored, but we better be smart about it cuz we ain't got the money to waste any more.
The words get in the way but perhaps we can agree on issues.
Do you think the new style CAFE regulations on fleet fuel economy in America are too restrictive? Are they limiting the types of automobiles you can buy?
I think the new CAFE regulations are too much, I'd pare it back somewhat. Over the long haul we're eventually going to get away from gasoline powered cars and trucks, not by gov't mandates but by market forces that make it cheaper and safer. Maybe not in the next 10 years, but we'll eventually get there.
I haven't heard that those regs are limiting the types of autos you can buy, seems like I still see a lot of SUVs on the road.
Here in St Louis we needed big brother to keep us from heating our homes with dirty coal. Amazing considering the immediate and obvious effects to air pollution. I hear there was a near uprising when folks were forced to buy......CLEANER coal.
Our city botanical garden has good examples of the effects on evergreen conifers in particular.
Really? How many St. Louis homes have been heated with coal in the last 50-60 years? The switch to oil burning furnaces or natural gas or electricity occurred long before climate change became an issue. And even the pro-AGW climate scientists agree that the change in the USA came more from market forces than anything the government has done.
Most of the world's electricity generation is via coal at about 40%. The rest is mostly from oil, natural gas, nuclear, and hydro with wind and solar still at the bottom at less than 1% worldwide. The USA now uses slightly more natural gas than coal for electricity generation but in both cases the percentage is in the low 30 percentile.
Few if any homes are heated with coal in St Louis any longer. The one I live in was heated with fuel oil 15 years ago. Even that was unbelievably dirty by modern standards.
To my point on heating with coal. The story of the trouble making people switch to cleaner coal in the 1930's is an example of something ridiculously easy and obvious the government had to make people do at the risk of riots.
Back to your point, market forces are slowly killing coal in America independent of government regulations I agree. Emissions regulations do not help coal but whatever nostalgia people have for wanting to go back to well off Coal miners were in Butcher's Hollow in the 1930's is misplaced.
What can we debate....I don't want to just plum shut down every coal plant in America. I'm also not enough of an expert to really engage in a conversation about coal plant emissions controls. In general I find electricity humorously cheap and if anyone asked me to vote yes on a bill which would add 5% to the cost of producing energy with coal by means of emissions control additions I would.
Try living on a small fixed income and see how you feel about adding 5% to that electric bill, most especially if it is for reasons that benefit pretty much nobody. Certainly where natural gas is cheaper, electric plants will use natural gas.
But if the USA cannot use all the coal produced, there are many other countries that need it.