Monday, November 26, 2007
None by KCPW
Midday Utah begins after the 9 a.m. news
A report released in May by the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that more than 150 new coal-fired power plants are proposed to be built over the next few years. And while coal has been heavily implicated in global warming and mercury releases Joe Lucas, says that coal is essential for meeting the growing power demand and for keeping energy costs low. And, he says, new clean coal technologies can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Joe Lucas is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, and a former spokesperson for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the U.S. Department of Energy. He also served as the Vice President of Communication for the Center for Energy and Economic Development, a non-profit organization that educates the public and government officials about the importance of coal-based electricity.
The Federal Reserve reported last week that it expects economic growth to slow significantly and unemployment to increase in 2008. On the phone to talk about the consequences of those predictions for the value of the dollar, an additional interest rate cut, and more, is Peter Navarro, a Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the School of Business at the University of California Irvine. He has written for major publications, including the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on NPR, CNN and all three major network news shows.
Email to a friendPosted in Midday Utah. Copyright 2008 KCPW
1. Scott said:
How about just the transcripts please.
2. Toby Rogers said:
The idea of building more coal-fired power plants in Utah is just crazy. One of the huge problems with coal is that they burn a non-renewable resource and create particle pollution -- which causes enormous health problems. Research shows that there appears to be no safe level of particle pollution.
"In the mid 1980s, C. Arden Pope at Brigham Young University recognized a 'unique natural experiment' when the Geneva Steel mill in the Utah Valley shut down during a labor dispute, allowing Pope to explore the health effects of pollution from the plant. [Both coal-fired power plants and steel mills emit high levels of particle pollution.] Geneva Steel was the focus of tremendous anger in the region. Residents blamed the black plumes from its smokestacks for making their children sick. Pope discovered that children's hospital admissions for respiratory disease essentially doubled during periods when the mill was operating versus when it was not." (Big Coal, p. 130)
The reality is that power plant pollution is responsible for 38,200 heart attacks and 554,000 asthma attacks each year.
With solar, wind, and geothermal you get energy from an almost endlessly abundant source with NO particle pollution. I got tired of seeing all of those TV commercials from the coal lobby so I made my own short YouTube video about the dangers of coal and the benefits of solar, wind, and geothermal. You can watch it here if you wish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PPxYCDKVec