In a message dated 3/25/2011 9:34:07 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-23-obama-administration-announces-massi
ve-coal-mining-expansion.
Is it just me, or shouldn't this have sounded much more of an alarm? This
looks to me like Obama has sold out to the coal interests, and that he's
totally decided to ignore any climate change effects. Yes, renewables are
growing, but doesn't this signal that Obama has cashed it in and decided that
fossil fuels are our future? Even if he has the intent of supporting
stronger EPA regulations, doesn't this put all the more pressure on the EPA to
somehow capitulate to, or at least accommodate, coal interests?
The Sierra Club's response to this is at
_http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=200421.0_
(http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=200421.0) . A reasonable response, but I see it as entirely too
tepid in the face of this news. I don't see any reference to things like the
Harvard study and the huge health costs that this will produce (at a time
when Obama wants health care reforms and costs to go down), and the massive
environmental damages, especially from climate change, that this will
practically guarantee.
It seems apparent that economic interests have trumped environmental ones,
and the way the coal industry won was to persuade enough people that coal
is the lowest cost option and necessary to our economic well being. By the
time we include health costs, direct environmental damage, climate change
damages, subsidies, and tax write-offs, is it really? While I don't disagree
with the content of the press release, I don't see how this cuts it in the
face of this decision. Nor does Grist apparently. We also had the Gulf oil
disaster and now they're issuing new drilling permits in the Gulf.
Am I reading too much into this that we need to make strong enough
economic (or other) arguments to dissuade people that coal is in our economic and
societal best interests? Do we need other tactics or stronger approaches or
responses? Or are we just packing it in, congratulating ourselves on the
battles we win while we're losing the war?
Don
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