“coal-lovers”?

I’ve watched the US Government Clean Coal deal for some time. I watched a US Dept of Energy Coal Gassification plant being built. I watched the same plant being torn down and sold for scrap after American tax-payers had invested big bucks in a political boondoggle.

If you think that the technology will be developed in the next four years, leave me a comment in 2012, I’ll eat crow and you can cackle with joy. Until then, I’ll not put as much stake in political promises made during a campaign as you seem to do. I’ve seen it before. I’ll watch it again.

Thanks for stopping by, reading and commenting.

I am from Detroit and having watched the auto industry die slowly I can tell you the biggest mistake workers made was just fighting change instead of trying to shape and take advantage of a changing employment landscape and get retraining to work in new jobs. Even as bad as Michigan’s economy is right now, there are currently over 90,000 skilled-labor jobs that are going unfilled because there are not enough people with skills to take them. These are $60,000+ jobs mind you and no one is there to take them. They don’t require a college degree, but do require some training. If the UAW had focused on getting training for its members instead of just fighting, fighting, fighting the inevitable change in the way cars are made (with a lot less human workers and more robots), their members would be far better off today.

Embrace CHANGE and try to shape it so that it doesn’t destroy your way of life. We can’t keep buring huge amounts of coal. Did any of you catch the Olymplic Games in Bejing. Remember how the atheltes couldn’t breath. That is because China uses coal for everything (cooking, heating, electricity generation, etc.). That is the end result of sticking with coal as a primary fuel source. Let’s not even begin to mention global warming, but I am sure many readers of this site don’t believe its real or that somehow environmentalist have some kind of “pro-science, anti-industry” agenda. But that is another debate.

I have come to notice that if you live in a coal area, then that is typically all you know. Your whole community revolves off of coal money. If coal were to fail, your community would fail. I have seen towns shut down due to mines closing. I know the effect.

But what everyone is failing to realize is that coal is NOT the long term solution to energy for many reasons. One, coal is a natural resource. We can not make coal. It will run out. We, as a planet, depend on coal more and more each year, thus more is being used. With a limited amount of coal on this planet, you are looking at less than 100 years worth of coal. Maybe less. Does that mean we need to quit using coal? No. That means we need better ways to use coal, and ways to use it with other types of energy, and eventually rely on a different type of energy. I know that statement will upset people, cause like I stated earlier, your community depends on coal. But that is what happens when the local governments of yesturday thought that coal would last forever. No other job types were brought to that area.

Now for point two, Coal is not friendly to the environment. I’m not a “tree hugger”, but that doesn’t mean that we should polute the air just so we can have a job market. What needs to be done, and Obama recognizes this, is that technology can be created to help reduce the greenhouse gasses that is put in the air by coal. That technology has to be created, and will help the coal community. Also, though, technology will be created to help find other sources of energy; ones that are more affordable, and less harming on the community such as neclear energy. Like Obama said, we don’t know how to store nuclear waste, but there will be a day when we will know how to store that waste. When that happens, you will see the coal market drop drastically, but those same miners can learn a new trait in the new market of nuclear energy.

I guess to sum it all up is that Obama realizes that coal will not last forever, and it isn’t good for the economy. What he wants to see happen is for us to start now to find a technology that will help coal emissions, and eventually lead to a cheaper, cleaner, and better energy source.

I know that some of you, as I said before, have only known coal and will disagree with what I have said, and what Obama believes; but a lot of you need to realize that while we need coal today, we need to look to the future.

Sorry, Martin. I would say that “myopia” means anyone who disagrees with your assessment.

I would gather that you are not a coal miner–and not in danger of losing your livelihood. You’re also likely to be from an urban area.

I suspect everyone here has great eyesight, including yourself. You feel people should care more about your vision of the environment than their job losses or higher electric bills. You sound quite willing to make those sacrifices; that is your choice.

You’re probably an Obama supporter. Others here are not. As I live in an area with a lot of coal miners, I am not either.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.