Carbon Sequestration is Overpriced and Unnecessary

Producing electricity using the gasification of coal, combined heat and power, and combined cycle power extraction, is a clean and viable method of using coal. But faux-environmentalists and dunderheaded politicians too often add inefficient and expensive carbon sequestration -- to no good purpose. Such incompetence only adds costs that are passed on to customers -- depressing the general economy.

What should our New York State and local leaders do? First, we could embrace clean coal technology. We make this too expensive by requiring carbon sequestration, a process by which carbon dioxide is recaptured and piped many miles away and stored underground. The green bent of our government mandates this incredibly expensive process in spite of all the controversy with global warming or in its newest guise, climate change.

The Marcellus Shale discovery is one of the most significant natural gas discoveries ever. Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia share this bounty with New York State. While those states enjoy the benefits of this discovery, we have our Department of Environmental Conservation figuring out how we can responsibly harvest this natural gas. Couldn’t we duplicate what’s being done in our neighboring states?

Lastly, we’re within 30 miles of one of the most successful hydroelectric plants in the world, the Niagara Power Project. Commercial customers such as One HSBC Center are legislatively excluded from accessing this very clean and cheap source of power. Instead we’re looking to invest a portion of the almost $300 million of annual profits from the Niagara Power Project in alternative energy sources. The plan is to place scads of windmills in lakes Erie and Ontario. If a static Peace Bridge design can be foiled by a bird, good luck winning over environmentalists and recreational boaters with this one!

There is no logical explanation why our electricity should cost 50 percent to 70 percent more than the national average. Regional assets like abundant hydropower and natural gas are denied us by our legislators and governor. The cost of electricity should be significantly less, not increasing.

_BuffaloNews

Unfortunately for the writer of the editorial, there is indeed a logical explanation why electricity in New York State and in other regions gored by green politics. Logically, green political activists wish to suppress economic growth. They believe that by doing so, they will take pressure off the environment.

But greens are far too stupid to understand that the worst economic devastation occurs in the areas of greatest poverty. Eastern Europe under the USSR was both impoverished and environmentally devastated. Rural and industrial areas of China are the world's most devastated areas -- and the vast masses of people are living in poverty. Impoverished third world people across the planet are deforesting their lands for firewood for cooking fires. Rivers become sewers and vacant lots become landfills. Poverty leads to environmental devastation.

Greens promote economic depression and poverty in a misguided attempt to help the planet --- but they are killing it instead. Widespread affluence leads to an appreciation of the environment, and a desire to preserve natural settings by using more economical substitutes for fuels and energy.

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