The AP has previously reported that some 154 coal plants are on the drawing board in 42 states. This is bad news, and the public must be galanvized to stop it.
Texas and Illinois are the biggest "winners" of this filthy foolishness, as both are slated for at least 10 of 'em. These plants cost a billion dollars each and will stay in operation 50 years, meaning most of the 21st Century, even though renewable energy technologies will be broadly available within the next 5-10-20 years.
Amazingly, these coal plants are going to be decidedly old school, not the new "gasification" technology that does a better job of limiting the emission of manmade carbon dioxide (CO2 ), a leading cause of the greenhouse effect and global warming. And there's no plan to "capture and sequester" the colorless, odorless stuff, which is increasingly doable.
Why does any of this matter to you? Let me repeat: 154 new coal-fired plants in 42 states, assuring air quality degradation from coast-to-coast.
Ever see the Mike Judge comedy Office Space, starring Jennifer Aniston? It was shot in Austin, Texas in the late spring of 1998, but you wouldn't know it because there's hardly a blue sky in the movie. Maybe a handful of scenes. Mostly it's cloudy and looks like Seattle, but that's not natural cloud cover.
There were grass and forest fires in Mexico, 500 miles away, yet the air in half of Texas looked and smelled like a cigarette-filled basement bar, minus the jazz music. It lasted two months, and you barely saw the sun through the haze in the middle of the afternoon.
The environment doesn't honor man-made borders, you know, and this was a living, breathing example.
It's time to take action. Singer Arlo Guthrie, after his audience sang a tepid chorus on the live version of Alice's Restaurant, famously chided them, "If you wanna end war and stuff, you gotta sing loud." No kidding.
Texans are holding an anti-coal plant rally on the grounds of the state capitol in Austin on Sunday, February 11th. It seems the Governor unilaterally "fast-tracked" a dozen of these relics on behalf of several utility companies. This means they can get the plants grandfathered in before an anticipated strengthening of laws at the federal level.
We all know how this works politically: the legislature won't stop the Governor's plan if they don't sense a hue and cry. A rally of several hundred will be a snore; a rally of several thousand will make the front page of every newspaper in the state and send a signal to legislatures in other states.
Global warming activist/Huffington Post blogger Laurie David and musician Sheryl Crow have announced an anti-global warming tour through Texas and other Gulf States in April. Here's hoping they, and all of us, can clear Sunday, February 11th on our calendar to be in the music capital of Austin, Texas, an island of blue in a sea of political red, to throw down the gauntlet against these coal plants.
"It's all about getting the rubes in the tent," cracked the late, great Saturday Night Live writer Michael O'Donoghue on defining success. Let's join the fight and stuff the tent. No less than our future is at stake.
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