Does that sound a little over-the-top to you?  Are you concerned that this is  hysterical thinking and not a rational argument?  If only...

I’ve been reading about, researching and tracking this coal issue for months now and the truth is coal is your enemy if you are fighting global warming (and really who isn’t these days - except the bad guys?)

So then, let’s calmly consider these well-supported facts:

According to EPA data, annual carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants are greater than the emissions from all cars, trucks, planes, trains, and other forms of transportation combined.  34% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US come from coal - making coal the King of Carbon.

The serious environmental and public health impacts of coal-generated electricity include damage, death and destruction from - say them aloud with me:

Coal mining

Air pollution

Coal plant waste

Water use

Coal is dirty every step of the way.

There are now about 600 conventional coal plants in the US burning on average about 1.4 million tons of coal each every year.  There are also over 150 new CO2 belching coal-fired plants on the drawing board in the US.

There are currently over 1,000 new coal-fired electric plants being built in China with a new one going on line every single week and bringing the planet that much closer to the global warming tipping point... And not in a good way.

While enlightened state and local governments, grassroots coalitions and organizations like the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and environmental groups large and small are all making the case with citizens and uniting to stop new plants from being built or opening, the coal industry is spending millions on a blatant and aggressive propaganda campaign using scare tactics, misdirection and pushing the fairy tale of “clean coal.”

The “clean coal” campaign says nothing about coal’s role in global warming.

The FTC won’t let companies lie in their erectile dysfunction commercials but the coal industry is held to a “softer” standard of truth.

There is no such thing as clean coal.  It is a myth.  (You know, like the lottery helping the school system.) No grid-connected power plant anywhere in the world is a clean coal plant and no technology currently exists to build or operate a clean coal plant. It would be swell if it did, but it don’t.

Many billions of our tax dollars have been spent to try and invent clean coal but no breakthrough has happened.  And we are not close to a breakthrough.  An unproven theory about carbon sequestration is being pushed by the coal industry but no such technology currently exists. 

The coal industry will never tell you the truth about this.

Here’s a brilliant concept to remember - The ONLY time coal can be considered clean coal is when its left in the ground untouched, because it’s full of carbon that’s being kept out of the air. 

Coal in the ground is its only proven form of carbon sequestration.  It has worked for thousands of years. The minute you start to mine it, move it and especially burn it in any way it becomes dirty, polluting and a global warming enemy

Coal is promoted as America’s cheapest and most abundant energy source, but coal’s price needs to include the true cost of coal’s impact on our environment and our health.

Right now billions and billions of tax dollars are being spent funding the development of “clean coal.”  ALL of that tax money should be spent on real, honest clean energy.  The technology is ready.  The people are ready.  All that is lacking is for the leaders in charge to do the right thing.  To make that happen you need to know the facts and use those facts to make things change.  I’m talking about speaking out whenever you can.

The coal industry should be spending their own money searching for clean coal, just as they should be spending their own money cleaning up the damage they have done.   Instead, they’re spending their money trying to scam people and trying to influence elections so they can get still more tax breaks and favorable legislation.  We can’t let them get away with that.

That’s certainly a lot less pie in the sky than the fantasy of “clean coal”.  And the sooner we get started the sooner we begin mitigating the damages of global warming.  and the sooner we begin building a thriving, growing new economy.

Here’s a simple and powerful truth for you - we can eliminate the need to add all those coal fired electric plants through conservation efforts and green practices.  That’s right, we have the ability and know how today to save all the energy those plants would produce and erase them from the drawing board.  Clearly that’s the  smartest possible thing we could do, isn’t it?  Damn right it is. 

Can we do it?  Yes we can!  We did it before.  Over an 11-year period (1973–1983), the United States built approx. 30 billion square feet of new buildings, added approx. 35 million new vehicles and increased real GDP by over one trillion dollars (in year 2000 dollars) while decreasing its energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

When it comes to telling the truth, the coal industry has proven time after time that it cannot be trusted.  They’ll say anything to keep raking in the billions of dollars they reap while their product acts like a weapon of mass destruction all around the globe. 

They got off pretty easy based on all the harm they caused.  But typically they admitted no wrong doing.  How could they when they’re busy telling us that coal is "an American resource that will help us with vital energy security" and "the fuel that powers our way of life?"

Maybe you’ll think of “That Idiot Einstein!” the next time one of those GE Ecoimagination commercials comes on.  Perhaps Chevron’s farcical claims to be the environmentally green oil company will instantly make you or one of your kids blurt out “Soothing Mayhem!” or “Powdered Water!”  

Mocking and derision are powerful tools to use against bullies, con artists and grifters because their scam relies on you playing the role of clueless sucker.  Well I’m here to offer you the much more fun and rewarding role of enlightened creative greenius.  We’re going to make our voices heard above the FUD and make sure our leaders at the local, state and federal level hear us.  Word-of-mouth and the Internet are the most powerful and effective communication tools today.  I’m using it right now and you need to as well.

One final thought as a tease for my next post - If you want to know how bad coal really is, consider that the “green” nuclear power industry is counting on Americans finding coal so self-abusive to use that we’ll be willing to turn to nuclear energy to replace it.

They’re hoping we’ll be so frightened and panicked over global warming that we’ll be willing to overlook the issues of radioactive waste, terrorist attraction or their industry’s practice of living up to the Homer Simpson standard of worker excellence.

It’s the nuclear industry’s own track record that makes me think of glowing neon green radioactivity when I hear about the “green nuclear energy.”  All you need to do is read the newspaper to learn the truth.  Just last week the San Onofre nuclear plant just a couple of hours south of here was busted for safety and security violations “including a worker who falsified records for more than five years to show that operators made hourly fire patrols when they had not.”

Last month a Canadian nuclear power plant that supplies critically needed radioactive medical isotopes for cancer patients was shut down over other serious safety violations.  "A significant risk to the successful completion of the project has been the unresolved technical issues related to operating in compliance with regulatory requirements," the federal auditor general warned.”  Now thousands of cancer patients aren’t receiving their treatments as a result.

True to form, the nuclear industry didn’t accept responsibility for their screwups either or offer any real hope that they’ll do better in the future.  They’re too busy lobbying in DC for billions in tax breaks and fast track approval for new nuclear plants.  “Aging hippies,” “Al Gore worshippers” and “treehugging granola eaters” is how the nuclear industry looks at those of us who don’t trust them and who call attention to their lousy record.

That’s right - they go straight to the Montgomery Burns playbook.  It’s only natural - the Simpsons offers the most accurate and honest look at the nuclear power industry ever produced.  Monty Burns is as green and credible as the United State nuclear power industry has ever been.

I’ll share the reasons why and the nuclear record with you in our next Creative Greenius.