By Seth Richardson
Cutting-edge pollution control technology being tested at the Drake power plant is threatening the ecozealot Sierra Club’s political agenda to shut down all fossil fuel power production, so they are threatening to sue Colorado Springs for alleged unpermitted “major modifications” to the plant. Gazette reporter Daniel Chacon outlines the Sierra Club’s claims in today’s Gazette, quoting club organizer Bryce Carter as saying that the Neumann Systems Group technology being tested, and soon to be installed at Drake was “definitely a consideration” in the club’s lawsuit.
The last thing the Luddites at the Sierra Club want to see succeed is pollution control technology that far exceeds all federal limits because the organization is dedicated to eliminating the use of all fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas and oil. Ignoring the obvious facts of physics that “clean energy” like wind and solar power cannot possibly take over the load from coal and gas-fired power plants any time in the next couple of centuries, if ever, these ecozealots insist on raising energy costs for everyone by filing frivolous lawsuits all over the country.
The club jumped on the Drake controversy precisely because it fears what it calls “experimental and unproven NeuStream technology” will actually succeed in dramatically reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants, which it shows every sign of doing right now. Colorado Springs is today at the forefront of technological innovation that can keep coal a cheap and viable source of power for the next century or more.
Coal is one of the United States’ most abundant and energy-dense fuels, and our low-sulphur coal is the envy of the world. So much so that we exported 27 million tons of coal to countries like Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, India and China. Sixty-five percent of the exports were “metallurgic coal” used for steel-making, which makes it a valuable national strategic resource, or it would be if the U.S. was still a major producer of steel.
Because of the enormous cost of federal regulatory compliance, many power plants have switched over to natural gas, which is another abundant source of energy in the U.S. This has caused continuing declines in coal consumption of almost 19 percent in 2011. This switch-over has actually resulted in dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions. Reason.com reporter Ronald Bailey wrote, “In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.”
But even that’s not enough for the ecozealots at the Sierra Club. Carter is quoted as saying, “There are broader questions that tie to a broader dialog” and that the city could have “paved the way to retire these old, dangerous an financially risky coal plants and transition to clean energy.” This is of course not true. Coal power technology is very mature and it’s anything but dangerous or financially risky. Coal power plants fueled the economic and industrial expansion of the nation into the economic powerhouse that it became, and the technology is quite safe and mature. Rare indeed is the explosion of a power plant’s coal stacks. Not necessarily so for natural gas fired plants.
From a tactical and strategic perspective, coal-fired power plants are more reliable than natural gas plants because they usually stockpile days to weeks worth of coal in their yards, which allows continued electric production even if delivery of coal is temporarily disrupted. Gas-fired plants can be shut down immediately simply by damaging or destroying the natural gas distribution pipelines that feed the power plant. That’s something that any competent terrorist understands. Disrupt a few major gas distribution points that feed gas-fired plants at the same time and their failure can easily cause a cascade shutdown of the entire region’s electrical grid. We see these sort of disruptions during severe weather, and the panics and riots in New York during the brownouts and blackouts in the Seventies and Eighties lead to chaos and death. Combine a deliberate disruption of power plant fuel supplies with other coordinated terrorist activities in a major city, like a “dirty bomb” or dissemination of a biological agent like Anthrax in weaponized form and the human toll could be enormous.
Nor is it wise to allow our power grid to be dependent on only one source of fuel. Wind and solar and other renewables have their legitimate place in the hierarchy of electrical power production, but they will never replace the energy-dense, abundant resources of coal and natural gas, at least not in our or our grandchildren’s lifetimes. Besides, who wants to see 400 foot tall wind generators that kill eagles stretching from horizon to horizon everywhere in the U.S.? Certainly not the late Ted Kennedy, champion of the eco-left, who vigorously objected to a plan to install wind turbines off-shore of his family compound near Martha’s Vinyard.
If NeuStream technology is effective on a large scale, it paves the way for a resurgence of clean-burning coal-fired power plants. And that terrifies the Sierra Club because they are dedicated to having us all living in wattle-and-daub huts and grubbing in the ground with sharpened sticks just to suit their religious worship of nature. So, they file frivolous lawsuits and obstruct the advancement of clean coal technology and burden taxpayers with the costs of litigation in their quest for ecological purity at the expense of human lives, economic prosperity, and national sovereignty.
And all this obstructionism is perfectly in line with President Obama’s pledge that “under [his] plan, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket” and the Sierra Club, which used to be dedicated to the preservation of wilderness areas has become just another group of mindless proletarian drones in the left’s war on capitalism and prosperity.
© 2012 Altnews
Bravo Broadside.
Curt Neeley, Native-Born Colorado Springs-an American
You have no idea the stability coal adds to the market place. Long term contracts. 30 day stockpiles on the ground. Energy diversity. I happen to believe that emissions should be cleaned up. SOx, NOx, heavy metals, particulates….they should be cleaned up. And yes, it will cost money. But even at that, coal is still economical.
I think it is a travesty to not take advantage of what we have. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal. 250 years worth or more. We should be in a building boom right now with emissions controls on every coal plant. We should be able to trade MW for MW old smaller plants for new more efficient plants. We still need to transition to a energy source that right now does not exist. Clean it on the front end with coal gasification, or promote more coal to methane beds.
This country is where it is not only for it’s abundant resources, but also for it’s abundant energy supplies. We already are hamstrung by more expensive labor, taxes, and regulations. To further cripple our economy by higher energy prices for band aid renewables it not what will keep this country competitive on the global market. Yes we need renewables, yes we need coal. Yes we need clean air. Can we get to work now? Oh, sorry… we have to go to court because the Sierra Club is preventing us from cleaning our emissions.
Here’s what I don’t understand: The Sierra Club spends millions of dollars of their own money on legal proceedings and causes ratepayers like us to have to spend more millions defending ourselves. If they truly believe we need to go to “green” energy sources like wind and solar, why don’t they put that money toward research that would make those sources more economically viable, like better batteries or more efficient photovoltaics? They don’t like what we are doing, but they aren’t doing anything to help.
What’s to understand? They are Luddites, they don’t have to make any sense.
Technology is the only thing that will resolve our energy and pollution problems, and you’re quite right in pointing out the hypocrisy of the Sierra Club’s obstructionism.
Thank you for commenting.
I think the answer to clean energy is simple, human power!
Human power built the pyramids, the great wall of China, along with a lot of early civic projects in the US.
Romney says the 47% of America is on some sort of Government assistance.
Obama says that 63% are overweight.
I say we load these fat freeloaders onto clean-coal powered locomotives and ship them to “workout camps” (which will be scattered throughout the US). We then put them on treadmills to generate electricity.
Two problems solved. In fact I have so much faith in this program, that it may yet be the “Final Solution” to both problems.
Praise the Lord!
Interesting, if somewhat extreme solution to a couple of pressing problems. I’ve always been in favor of a welfare law that says if you get welfare, you have to report to a local stadium and sit there doing absolutely nothing (including talking to others) for eight hours before you get your daily paycheck. Your alternative is to take vocational classes to prepare you for some actual work.
But put them to work generating electricity? Hm.
But it won’t happen, not under this Administration! We’re to busy apologizing for 9/11 and YouTube videos! Under great Presidents like Reagan NOBODY ever apologized for YouTube videos!!!! Because we were a proud country and now we have an Islamist in the White House! I’ll never turn in my guns or my dogs or my “creepy” porn! My ex-wife is such a LIAR! I hate lawyers! Blood sucking parasites!
That’s why I love this column. You, Seth, know how it is and you’re not afraid to speak the truth! These idiots who attack you are just afraid of the truth. Coming up with facts and history, in order to fulfill the New Obama Order!, its all CRAP. I know what I know cause the good Lord tells me so! You can’t prove it, you just have to believe it!
God Bless you Seth! I’d like to buy you a beer someday and not that honey brewed Socialist swill the President wants us to drink, a real beer, Coors, or Coors Lite (cause I don’t wanna get packed on a train headed for them workout camps),. Just a little joke there, heh!
Stay strong my brother in arms!!!!
I smell sarcasm.
The problem is that we do not counter suit the lawyers who file these baseless law suits. If we are not agressive in recouping the cost of the defense and a large punative settlement then they will continue to chip away at our liberties. The mercury claim foisted on us by the goverment and the Sierra club is obscene and congress needs to something about it. The potential gain in cleaning up coal on a world wide basis is certianly to our advantage and the rejection of this technology shows that the Sierra club is just trying a power play. Would like to see them in the wood shed.
The Sierra club has been preserving the beauty of America since 1892. Nearly a hundred years before your mother was wiping your nose in Sunday school. It saved Yosemite national forest as well as sequoia National park- places you’ve clearly never been to Seth, nor apparently comprehend. John Muir, it’s founder, Remains a legend to millions worldwide- and his writings and thoughts have affected tens! if not hundred, of millions of lives. Muir was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, and an inspiration to Teddy Roosevelt (remember that liberal?) You’ll love this one too Seth, in addition to memorizing a majority of the Bible… Actually MEMORIZING it, not what the arm chair wannabe theologians like yourself do on Sunday, he found nature to be the most perfect example of gods creation. The society currently has 1.3 million members, countless donors, and entire governments influenced by Muir’s philosophy…. You on the other hand have a …..blog…… The next time you write a criticism of a historical movement or enormously influential force for good like the Sierra Club- d yourself a favor and actually learn something about that organization…. O yes, and quit watching fox news… It’s just crap propaganda for lazy thinkers
Yup, and it was good at that, right up until the ecozealots hijacked the organization and started acting like Luddite obstructionists fairly recently.
That’s why they lost a lot of members, including, as it happens, me.
I have no beef with Muir or Emerson, although I despise Roosevelt, who was not a liberal, he was a Progressive.
Oh, and I’ve been to both Yosemite and Sequoia. Lovely places.
But that was then, and this is now, and what the Sierra Club is doing now is Luddite political obstructionism and nothing more.
I think you all should be more concerned right now with the political obstructionism caused by the city counsel than the Sierra club. At least the Sierra Club is causing trouble for a noble cause. The city counsel is driving out a company that is trying to solve some of our greatest environmental problems of this century. It is a company that would bring hundreds of high paying jobs to this city, through the hiring with their own company and the millions that will be supporting local sub-contractors.
Classic re-distribution. No thanks ZerObama!!!!!
The tactics of the Sierra Club are not to be admired. They ignore the rights of individuals to exits and in the case of mercury in coal they have set limits that far exceed any common sense. The level has been set so low that it theoretically protects every human in USA regardless of their condition. This far eceeds their mandate but with their coaltion with the democrats it will take some time to defeat. I am sure that most of the clubs members are not aware of the cheating and lying that is going on to enforce the clubs will. May people are hurt by the excessive regulation that serve no one.