Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Ahhh, the refreshing feel of government transparency

Okay, so maybe there's still a ton of information that we will never be able to reach and know about the going's on in our government, but the Obama Administration's attempts at creating what they hope will be "the most open and accessible administration in American history" are admirable to say the least. At the core of this effort is the Administration's remodeling of the entire White House website, located at www.whitehouse.gov

On this site, they post press releases, staff bios and backgrounds, policy agendas, The White House blog, and even a place where you can send comments or policy questions to the President and his staff. I recently submitted my first comment in response to the Obama Administration's inclusion of Clean Coal Technology into its Green Jobs Plan and Energy and Environment agenda. While its been awhile since I've posted, I thought I'd share my comments and the link to the whitehouse.gov site here.

Feel free to let me know what you think and send in some comments of your own about an issue you care about. Let's keep the communication going between the people and our government, so they know what we truly think.

"Dear President Obama and Vice President Biden,

I’m writing on behalf of my concerns about our administration’s inclusion of Clean Coal Technology in its Green Jobs Plan and its Energy and Environment Agenda. According to your website, the Obama Administration plans to “Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology” as a main part of its plan to create millions of new green jobs in the United States. However, as you are well aware of, public concern over global warming is rising and despite the coal industry’s recent focus on convincing the American people of its “commitment to clean”, many Americans are well aware of the truth that coal is an inherently dirty and unsustainable form of energy generation.

No matter which way you spin it, coal is neither a “clean” source of energy nor a proper investment in a sustainable energy future. The negative social, environmental and health consequences of coal power generation are well-documented and surely well understood by your administration. However, given its position as the number one source of electrical power generation in the US and the current administration’s inclusion of Clean Coal Technology into the category of Green Jobs and clean energy, it is important to point out why Clean Coal is not only environmentally damaging, but also the antithesis of what a sustainable economy stands for.

A close look into the economics of coal energy production reveals that this process does not foster durable jobs nor is it as cheap as it first seems. As Winona LaDuke, a Native American Green Jobs and environmental justice advocate points out, the influx of mining workers, machinery, and infrastructure into native and other mining communities has drastic social, political and cultural effects in what sociologists refer to as “boom town syndrome”. As such, mining communities rarely experience positive long-term economic prosperity, but rather fizzle out once their supplies of coal or demand for their products runs low.

Besides being a visual blight on communities, coal fired power plants disproportionately place high health and environmental burdens on low-income and minority populations. The negative health affects of coal power soot are many and include: asthma and other respiratory ailments, mercury poisoning, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and premature death. Similarly, particle pollution from coal causes acidification of waters, soil nutrient depletion, and destruction of crops and forests. All of these negative externalities are not only bad for the health of the American people but leave coal power generating communities with numerous new social, environmental, and economic challenges to face.

A final way that coal power is clearly an economic liability is through its contribution to accelerated and extreme climate change. It is well-known that coal-power generation is one of the greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions not only in the United States, but also globally. As your administration and Congress work together to put a market based cap on CO2 emissions, the price of coal will only continue to rise in relation to other, cleaner sources of energy and energy savings, such as wind, solar, conservation, and efficiency. While Carbon Capture and Storage technologies have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 90 percent, they also vastly reduced the efficiency of power generation, increase cost, and are simply not available for deployment in the very near future. In an era where a significant part of global economic activity will need to consist of technologies and jobs that lead to a drastic reduction in CO2, it becomes apparent that clean coal is a band-aid solution at best.

In the coming months, as your administration and Congress decide how to invest billions of stimulus dollars to jump-start a green economy, you will continue to face the growing influence of the coal industry lobby in Washington. While the industry likes to advertise its commitment to “clean” energy, the fact remains that the industry’s leading companies have spent only a fraction of their multibillion-dollar profits to develop technologies that curb carbon emissions adequately, while spending large sums of money on efforts to convince Washington and the American people of the benefits of clean coal. As such, I urge you to support investments into technologies that will be sustainable not only in an environmental context, but also in an economic one. The American people need jobs they can count on for years to come, not jobs that will leave their towns desolate as the coal resources run out, that will leave their rivers and streams polluted and unavailable for healthy use, and that will become increasingly uncompetitive as the price of CO2 related energy production rises.
Thank you for your time, your Administration’s commitment to communication and contact with the American people, and your support of a Green Jobs economy.

Sincerely,

Ryan Doyle"