"Get serious." The concluding words to the Tribune editorial on Oct. 6.
The Tribune was forceful in its advocacy for coal and clean coal and a national energy policy, especially as it impacts on North Dakota's prime resource and economy. It reinforced the Bismarck-Mandan's Chamber of Commerce in chiding Sen. Joe Biden for his "glib" and "off-the-cuff" (the Tribune's word) comments during the recent presidential campaign for "dismissing the vital role of coal and clean coal technology for the future."
Clean coal, no matter how you dress it up, is not clean, though some effort may be made to clean it up. Clean coal is an oxymoron. Let's get serious about that reality.
Further, "clean coal" technology is rather new and expensive. North Dakota has one operation at Beulah's coal gasification plant. Its captured emissions are piped to Saskatchewan for use there. There is also one in Germany. However, widespread development and use of "clean coal technology" is well off into the future.
In the meantime, coal plants continue to spew CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere, which cannot continue to absorb it. With a projected increase in energy demand, things will only continue to escalate.
That's the problem. Cleaning up coal, desiring to become energy independent in the U.S., advocating for continuing oil exploration, doesn't address the major issue, and that's climate change. We have to think and explore in directions other than fossil fuels and their technology.
There are all kinds of possibilities beyond the present sources of energy, some not even thought of yet. So long as we continue to think only or heavily about what to do about fossil fuels, we will not funnel our creative energies elsewhere. We will remain stuck in the status quo, and the whole of creation, including us, will suffer.
Get serious? Indeed! Let's.
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