Coming clean on use of coal

Re “Coal is no longer on front burner,” Jan. 18

It is a sign of progress that America is beginning to face the coal-hard truth about burning black “chunks of solid carbon” to meet our insatiable hunger for electricity. Feeding a ravenous coal-fired power plant requires stripping huge swaths of land each and every year. To feed our energy appetites, we flatten mountains, wrench soil-stabilizing trees from the ground, devour purple mountains majesty and bury streams under toxic tons of rubble.

Solar or wind power, in contrast, require only the land at the power plant, abundant space on rooftops, onshore acreage and offshore placement of wind turbines. The distance between turbines also means that this land can be used for agriculture and grazing.

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy will require creativity and a new way of looking at how we power our lives. This may not be cheap, but how do you put a price on cleaner air and healthier Americans?

Linda Nicholes

Anaheim

The order cancellations referenced in the article are a sign of hope. People across the country are deciding that coal’s multiple bad effects are real, cumulative, permanent and largely ignored in Washington. Yes, our government laboratories publish papers on the concentrations of mercury and other heavy metals, on particulate matter and other technical, necessary topics. Less published are papers on the effects on mining, water use and especially global warming.

Coal is the main reason the U.S. is the world’s largest source of greenhouse gases. The ready availability and relatively low cost (to the power generator), and the fact that we have always done it this way, gave coal a safe place in the market for 125 years and created a large body of well-financed special-interest groups.

The true cost of coal has never been directly charged, though it has been paid indirectly by users and nonusers alike.

A national embargo on all coal-fired power plants incapable of sequestering their toxic exhausts is needed now.

Robert Siebert

Orange