need to add title here

Powered By Coal

April 26, 2009 6:56 PM

Coal is America's most abundant and cheapest fossil fuel but, as Scott Pelley reports, burning it happens to be the biggest contributor to global warming.

The Dilemma Over Coal Generated Power
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by dennyhayes June 22, 2011 2:44 AM EDT
I run one of the largest lighting retrofit companies with branches around the US, and presently opening up in Canada. We cut companies electric bills pretty much in half, but from my perspective, there is little difference between an electric power company and the Mafia, except that I don't believe they kill people, or at least not intentionally. Duke Energy is one of the worst. Electric companies are encouraged by the federal government to offer incentives and rebates to encourage companies to reduce energy usage. Some utility companies do a good job, and in areas such as Columbus, OH a company can get a retrofit for free, because of the low cost method our company uses. But with the majority of utilities it is an uphill battle. A little over a year ago, I had a conversation with a Duke Energy representative at Starbucks, who was telling my how good of a job we were doing. My response was that I could do a lot more if they fixed their rebate program so that it works. His response to me was that I had to look at their point of view. When I asked what that view was, he actually admitted that they had no interest in reducing energy usage, because it reduced their profit. My response was that it was obvious, but he was nuts to admit it. There are varying degrees or rather ways to look at a bad utility company. Duke makes their program difficult because they only have interest if the payback to the customer in savings (ROI) is over 2 years, where we pride ourself by getting the ROI to under a year. So to get any benefit from Duke's rebate program we have to rip off the customer. San Diego Gas & Electric is the other side of the coin. Their program has allowed retrofitters like ours to convert over 95 percent of the city to the new technologies, but they do it in a large part by lying and cheating vendors such as our company. I remember typing up an email explaining a situation where they cheated me, and their only response from two people at SDG&E was that my email was too long. They also claimed that if we footed the cost of the job that we would get our money back in 90 days, which in reality turned into over 6 months, and in one case almost 2 years. My point of view is that we are surviving and reducing the carbon footprint, so our looses at least help the environment. though the lies and games that some of the utility companies play just irks me. When I watched your show the experiences we have had were even obvious in the mannerisms of their top dog.
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by smendicino May 1, 2009 9:24 PM EDT
Wow! I don't think coal is the answer. It may make sense to use geothermal, wind and solar. I have geothermal, and made all the changes to our lighting and appliances for fuel efficiency. It may not be enough. The clean coal technology seems too expensive and not a 100% accurate. I wonder if we plan on selling this technology to China. They use more coal than we do???
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by jfvacc April 28, 2009 11:15 PM EDT
For all of you people that are against energy produced by coal, do me a favor and turn off all of the lights in you home, and quit using your electrical appliances. This will be your stand against coal, and the energy produced from it.

PUT YOU MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS.
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by Bonfe April 28, 2009 1:58 PM EDT
There already is a company that is able to produce 100% clean burning coal, with a totally new tecnology. Last Jan 28 and 29th I left Minnesota and went to N. Carolina, and saw it in person,because I'm invested in the company, and I wanted to see it with my own eyes.
Bixby Energy is located in Ramsey MN, north of St. Paul about 40 miles.
Bob Walker is the founder of Bixby Energy. He also started Select Comfort, the mattress company.
Myself as well as many other investors are very excited about this new tecnology, and realize how important this will be for our country and the rest of the worlds ecology. If you are interested in talking with Bixby Energy, they may be reached at 763-404-7800.
I would appreciate a response from you. efnob@aol.com or 651-983-9337
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by jtc1321 April 28, 2009 9:28 AM EDT
The U.S. Department of Energy

?With coal likely to remain one of the nation's lowest-cost electric power sources for the foreseeable future, the United States has pledged a new commitment to even more advanced clean coal technologies.?

(link: http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/)

The U.S. Department of Commerce reports a ?Total Worldwide Demand for CCT Equipment from 2003 to 2030: $254 billion,? August 29, 2008

(link: http://tradeinservices.mofcom.gov.cn/en/f/2008-08-29/54421.shtml)
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by jazzbullet April 28, 2009 9:25 AM EDT
How about solar n& wind? Are they more or less expensive then carbon sequestration?
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by jonathansj April 27, 2009 11:31 PM EDT
one gallon of natural gas or gasoline burns in an engine and makes one gallon of co2

i think the co2 probably is generated on the ground by industry forest fires and volcanoes.. but that even though its heavier than normal air. somehow maybe in the direst sun, since co2 is made of carbon, and carbon is black, and co2 is known to absorb infra red, that it is heated and becomes lighter than normal and if able to rise like a hot air balloon , in that way it could be more concentrated in higher atmosphere areas where it would shield off the suns rays and cause or contribute to the atmospheric cooling that i have read and heard some research to suggest.
if so. than if it is heating the stratosphere. then it seems highly likely that it prevents water vapor from freezing in the intense cold of the stratosphere and disables the mechanism that freezes water vapor and prevents clouds from rising(threw their own form of absorbing its own color of light). and rising up and into the mesosphere and turning to some form of team that can become so light that it can pass threw the ionosphere and finally into the unfiltered solar radiation into space at a rate that could prevent the sea level from ever rising. and cause it to eventually drop after the poles are all melted dedicating the earth. maybe. probably
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by jonathansj April 27, 2009 9:46 PM EDT
this is what i think
co2 is bad.
theres less co2 in the earths atmosphere per volume than the atmosphere os the moon.
co2 is probably building up in tyhe measosphere and causing watyter vapor to be syphenned into space
maybe causing heat to be convected to the lower atmosphere and melting the poles.


the earth's a ball dirt with a top layer of water. it rains on the hot part and snows on the cold part. the snow builds up the polar caps till they extends way into the air. quite a few miles high.
it snows at about the same rate on the north pole and south pole.
but
the sun only gets intense enough to melt the snow when:
1)the pole is tilted toward the sun and
2)when the earth is on the part of its orbit that is closest to the sun.
which is only possible on the north pole since the sun is closest when the north pole is tilted towards the sun

the south pole is melted by another mechanism.
because the south pole builds up more snow since it almost never heats hot enough to melt . the south polar ice cap is a big heavy ice cube. the south polar ice cap is so heavy that it presses down on the earth beneath the ice cap
it presses so hard that it creates a depression in the earth's crust.
the depression is so deep that it presses the crust into the sub crust just above the molten part of the earth.
the earth's sub crust is hot at that depth. so hot that it melts the ice under the ice cap.

the following is a sort of guideline to create a model of why the north pole melts.
the temperature of the earth is probably about 75 degrees farinhite. the temperature looking into outer space on the night side of the earth is probably 150 degrees below 75 degrees. and in the direct sunlight probably about 200 degrease. water freezes at 32
the temperature on the equator must be 125(since half day and half night) poles is probably an average of -50
the north pole goes colder in its winter and hotter in its summer.
but the south pole varies less in temperature. so it never gets above point where the accumulation melts faster than the snowfall rebuilds it
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by shellius April 27, 2009 4:22 PM EDT
quote:
"One fact you cannot deny...there is absolutley NO WAY to capture and Control MERCURY POLLUTION from burning COAL BURNERS , furnaces , incenerators.
I don't care one farthing if you want to die in a filthy environment.
Y-O-U just don't have my permission to kill me with that FILTH. "

I SECOND THAT. The legal basis to shut down all the coal plants is that they are destroying the country that no one generation has any right to trash. The country and the world belong to future generations and it's illegal to destroy the air and land that doesn't belong to us. Why don't a group of Eco-minded lawyers get on this and let's get a class action suit started against the coal industry. I will repeat that. We need a class action lawsuit against the coal industry as guardians of our children and future generations. Let's get some lawyers on this.
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by promanen April 27, 2009 3:58 PM EDT
You've all known since the mid 1970's that COAL was a filthy uncontrollable fossil fuel.
Yoy've also followed the " magic Dollar " and supported the purveyors of filth. Now you deny Global Warming.
One fact you cannot deny...there is absolutley NO WAY to capture and Control MERCURY POLLUTION from burning COAL BURNERS , furnaces , incenerators.
I don't care one farthing if you want to die in a filthy environment.
Y-O-U just don't have my permission to kill me with that FILTH.
SHUT DOWN COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS>

Next item : We have absolutley no manufacturing facilities left that require heavy electrical usage. So for whom are they building the new plants for ?
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