Progressive Wednesday

Liquid Coal: As dirty as it sounds

June 11th, 2007 by Eric

Proponents and lobbyists for the myriad energy industries have been engaged in a perpetual “steel cage” wrestling match since the 1970s or earlier, bloodying each other up (Hey, can you run cars on energy lobbyist’s blood?) so much that nobody seems to be making any significant headway. Well, now there’s some fresh meat in the energy cage: liquid coal. This is from the New York Times:

Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years.

Problems ooze from every pore of this piece of legislation. The argument that liquid coal is a clean burning fuel is absurd. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, if liquefied coal replaced gasoline as the main source of energy in the country our greenhouse gas emissions would increase 119%. That’s unacceptable to me; I hope it is to you too.

It also follows that any long-term decrease in the price of fuel would be offset by the increase in tax revenue spent on subsidies. According to the Denver Post, the government would:

spend $35 billion over the next decade to build coal-fired generating plants. Given these long-standing financial incentives, cooperatives have had little reason to make meaningful investments in alternative energy sources.

I have great difficulty sending a red nickel of taxpayer money to energy companies at all. But when that money would be used to fund a project that would, say, end the world, I have an even bigger problem with it.

Liquid coal has a lot of friends, however, and on both sides of the isle. Members of the House, Senate, and even Presidential candidates are pushing to get this through. There are a lot of states that mine coal, and they would to get a piece of the pie; the pie tastes like coal.

This is a bit urgent, as liquid coal subsidies might be added to a bill to combat global warming at the last minute after being defeated in committee. So call or write your Senator or Representative today and tell them to vote “no” if this amendment is attached. You can get their contact info here.

The government already subsidizes obesity when it gives money to big farms to grow corn. Let’s not subsidize the destruction of our environment too.

Photo credit goes here