Kill Coal Use

The coal industry and electricity generators are up in arms about Environmental Protection Agency plans to reduce CO₂ emissions from power plants. Some plants could go out of business. Members of Congress are screaming that EPA plans would kill coal use in the U.S. (C&EN, Oct. 7, page 42). How ironic.

Where were these stout defenders of “outdated” industries when the U.S. textile industry was killed by shipping it overseas? The same goes for the U.S. electronics industry and multiple other manufacturing industries.

I suppose when U.S. businesses find it convenient to eliminate millions of jobs, that is okay. But when the health of the people and the welfare of the country are at stake, I guess dirty industries need to be preserved. After all, climate change is only a “theory.” But some “theories” are more important than others, like the “theory of gravity.” I am sure none of these skeptics would test that theory by jumping out a window from the second floor.

Industries come and go. We no longer make buggies or buggy whips, nor use gaslights in our homes, so we will eventually get by with much less coal or none at all. We will be better for it—because of less CO₂ in the atmosphere, fewer mountaintops scraped away for coal mining, fewer streams polluted, and fewer slag fields that resemble stark moonscapes.

Werner Zimmt
Tucson