Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

It would reduce "normal" pollution, end the damage caused by coal mines and spent ash dumps and the horrendous legacy of coal usage.  It also would reduce CO2 emissions, so it's a two fer.  Even if climate change is not as bad as many fear, it would be very worthwhile IMHO.

The obvious replacement is nuclear, with spent fuel reprocessing, but that is "impractcable".  We really could do this in 10 years or so with a standardized design.  It would cost money but I think it would be worth it, better than some of the claptrap I see out of DC.  And if in 2050 we realize climate change wasn't that bad, well, we'd still be better off.

You're such an all-or-nothing talking point enthusiast.

We should do it because it will improve our quality of life and because we now know better and because it's the right thing to do.

so you agree with me we should do it to fight pollution not global warming

cause taking action just for global warming is just wasting money and cant be achieved

If we can reduce normal pollution AND CO2 at a reasonable cost, I'd do it.

We have to have reliable base load power.

Powder River Basin coal is known for its stability. Over the last decade, even as the industry contracted, its weekly spot price fluctuated by just $5 per short ton, never rising above $13.25, never sinking below $8.25. The spot price of costlier but more energy-dense Appalachian coal, meanwhile, ranged from $40 to nearly $84.

Then, on Oct. 29, Powder River Basin coal passed $14 for the first time since 2011. Two weeks later, the spot price soared to a record $30.70 per short ton.

It was still at $30.70 the next week. And again the week after that.

The stunningly high price of coal is largely the consequence of a supply and demand mismatch in the natural gas market, where demand has continued to exceed supply in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns, propelling natural gas to its highest sustained price since 2014.


“Over the last decade, gas prices have been stubbornly low — I mean, they’ve been below $2,” said Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association. “And utilities have been relying on their natural gas resources.”

The market price of natural gas is more variable than the price of Powder River Basin coal. Electric utilities that operate both coal and gas-fired power plants can switch back and forth, and according to Deti, Wyoming’s coal becomes competitive when natural gas costs more than $2.60–$3 per million British thermal units.

The spot price of natural gas was $4.90 on Nov. 26. Between mid-September and mid-November, it remained above $5.

“Utilities are charged with providing electricity to their customers, as low as they can, and so the demand on the (Powder River Basin) has grown significantly in the last couple of months,” Deti said.

For years, U.S. utilities have increasingly substituted electricity produced from renewables and natural gas in place of coal-fired power. But power plant units burning subbituminous coal — the type mined in the Powder River Basin — made up about one-third of the close to 100 megawatts of U.S. coal capacity retired since 2011. The majority of retired capacity relied on bituminous coal from the Appalachian and Illinois basins.

Still, even though most of the power plants fueled by Wyoming coal are still operational, many face looming retirement dates. Utilities have slowly depleted their existing coal stockpiles in preparation for those closures. This September, U.S. stockpiles of subbituminous coal fell to 46.2 million tons — their lowest in more than a decade.


https://kearneyhub.com/news/state-and-regional/price-of-wyoming-coal-jumps-to-unprecedented-high/article_e468863e-4b48-5b13-bc4a-5be8186fec2b.html

66% Of Consumers Think Electric Vehicles Have A Gas Engine | Carscoops

We are too dumb to persist.

I think there's probably some confusion in the public over the differences between a pure EV, and a hybrid.  I suspect that played some part in the results.