Word: coaling
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...worth its weight in gold. Giant tires are in increasingly short supply as the extraction industry hits overdrive to chase rising commodities prices. As demand for raw materials grows in the booming economies of India and China, mining companies are scurrying to dig deeper, faster and more efficiently for coal, copper and other materials. In doing so, they're loading up on the world's biggest trucks (40-plus-ft. tall) and coaxing mileage from their old vehicles--all of which require new $20,000 tires as often as once a year. Unlike tires for automobiles, which can be cranked...
Just as alarming are new discoveries about unexpected sources of mercury contamination. While coal-fired power plants and chemical factories are familiar culprits, a recent study reveals that wetlands are mercury time bombs; if hit by wildfire, they release centuries' worth of accumulated toxin in a single, sudden blaze. In addition, there's a growing body of research that reveals the extent to which medium to high levels of exposure to the metal can harm adults as well as children, causing a wide range of ills--including fatigue, tremors, vision disorders and brain, kidney and circulatory damage. All told...
Cleaning up the mess is the responsibility of the species that made it, and that job starts with coal. The 440 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. produce about 48 tons of mercury a year--40% of the nation's total output, by some estimates. The Clinton Administration did not attack the problem until its final year, when it issued a proposal that would have required a 90% cut in power-plant mercury by 2008. President George W. Bush has discarded the Clinton rule in favor of a looser standard that would result in only a 70% reduction...
...real issue, critics say, is an old rural coal mining town, which had been 90% or more white, unable to come to grips with its new demographics."It becomes discriminatory in effect, if not in intent," said David Vaida, an attorney from nearby Allentown who is a local counsel on the lawsuit. "I'm not willing to tar anybody who is in favor of this as a racist, but what I do know is that the effect is going to be racist...
...sounds simple enough, right? Not quite. In order to understand such environmental ambition, it's important to realize how energy is distributed. Every energy producer - whether coal, nuclear or wind - gets paid a flat rate to produce electricity, all of which is dumped into a central national power grid and distributed through different energy providers throughout the country. Making a single megawatt-hour of electricity from wind, however, is more expensive than one from fossil fuel. So wind farmers sell credits, which are priced to cover the difference in cost and allow them to stay in business. By purchasing these...