Jeff,
Quite the review of the book. It's good to see that reviews are making their way onto your blog. The coal mining industry is something my family knows rather well. I have several relatives that used to work in a huge open pit mine near Centralia, Washington. I know that my uncle absolutely hates to see the huge scar the open pit puts on the land, even after working there for over twenty years. He'd always tell me that he wished the demand would go away so there'd be no reason to mine it.
I think Goodell has some good points according to your review. Of course it all comes down to how we get our energy. Whether it's capturing methane from landfills, hydropower, wind farms, or solar arrays, it ultimately comes down to supply and demand. People demand electricity, and companies supply it. There are more and more companies out there starting to offer green energy, but that's the minority rather than the majority. Until significant providers of green energy come online, coal will be a the option people choose, certainly over the risks and long term problems associated with nuclear energy.
Of course there are incentives that could be in place that aren't. Why not a reduction of property taxes if every light in your house is either compact fluorescent, or those new LED's? Why not replace streetlights with bright LED's - which would dramatically cut down on energy consumption of cities. Why not demand that all stoplights and crosswalk signs be constructed of LED's? If you think about the massive reduction in power consumption those things alone would provide, there'd be a way to get out from under our dependence on coal as a source of cheap energy.
i'm curious about how the coal industry and electricity industry in general will react to that new algae-filtering process MIT is coming up with. could provide a major step towards cleaner coal, and structural reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Brian -- You're absolutely right about the economics of energy, and Goodell addresses that throughout the book. He takes issue with the idea that we (the US) have enough coal to power ourselves for 250 years, because the economics of recovering that coal and processing it are fairly complicated.
Donald -- The experiments with using algae to clean emissions look really promising. If Big Coal is true to form (at least according to Goodell's characterization), they'll likely praise it until it becomes a reality, and then start praising something much further off while claiming they can't afford to make the changes necessary to implement the algae technology. He believes that, as an industry, coal is incredibly averse to change...
i hope books like this can make a dent against the hip and trendy "clean energy" ad campaigns being run by the likes of ge & bp. (the coal commercial from ge...i can't even express the extent to which it disturbs me)
Goodell refers specifically to the hot model coal-miners ad...
Companies in the US are trying to be green but aren't going after the many problems. There aren't many green buildings out there. Most buildings are rather inefficient. Many don't have proper insulation so they have to keep their air conditioners running all the time in the summer and their heaters running all the time in the winter. It's a huge drain on the power grid. People these days are wising up and seeing that it's beneficial to them to build green. But that's today. There are millions of structures out there for which the idea of a retrofit or remodeling is beyond reach of the occupants.
Coal is a burden of the US because we've used it for so long that people are used to having it being available, just like gasoline. The trick to making it work and be appealing to people is to be able to provide all of the coal workers with jobs in green energy. That requires job training and that requires availability. People thee days are holding onto their jobs because of uncertainty in the stock market. Coal can only go away when there is adequate replacement for fuel using green methods, whatever way they choose to go.
Jeff,
I thought you would be interested in reading Jeff Goodell's op-ed in the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/opinion/
23goodell.html).
Also, there are a couple other reviews of the book worth reading:
Sunday Book Review
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/2...r=1&
oref=slogin
Bloomberg Story
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ne...E&
refer=culture
NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/2...oks/
21grim.html
The link to Jeff Goodell's op-ed didn't come out live. Here it is again:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/2.../
23goodell.html
Dr. DigiPol--
Thanks for passing those along. I'm glad to see that Goodell's book is getting such attention -- it certainly deserves it!
Commenting by HaloScan
