Anyone who has ever gotten their hands dirty with coal should be able to realize that clean coal is an oxymoron. Coal is the sine qua non for global warming. Sequestration of CO2 emissions would take building an infrastructure greater than the entire mass of pipelines, vessels, other transportation, mines, drilling rigs and production platforms and then leave a problem more difficult than the storage of nuclear waste.

Scientists attempting to separate and convert the noxious emissions of coal-burning plants to additional fuel as well as recovering valuable products are not terribly likely to see substantial commercial results that would solve most problems in the near future. In no way would I want to discourage such research BTW.

Though only fools think they know the future certain, it is my belief now that Obama will be the next president. Much of what he proposes and a lifetime record promises a most welcome change but his routine acceptance of conventional wisdom in regard to energy policy is abysmal. As are those of nearly all politicians. One might even make the case that John McCain is the superior candidate on the issue considering McCain has accepted that there is a problem of global warming, something scientifically-challenged Republicans tend to deny.

Advances in solar power and storage technology may some day make it an acceptable alternative to fossil fuel-burning power plants but for now, despite some admirable uses, it is little more than a cipher in the total energy picture. Wind makes far more of a contribution but is still a very minor factor and will remain so in the foreseeable future because it is intermittent. No one wants power only when the wind blows and the sun shines.

Even if the U.S. stopped building coal-burning power plants today and started shutting down those in existence, one might consider that China is adding a new coal-burning power plant every week.

There are answers but the answers are not ones that politicians readily accept.

For instance, the U.S. is shipping waste wood to China and other countries to supply power even now while utilizing only little of its own. The problem for politicians is that utilizing wood from sources like landfills does nothing for farmers, let alone coal miners.

Obama has added biodiesel to the Al Gore catechism of wind and solar. It is enchanting to think of trucks being fueled by used french fry oil from McDonald's - there really is some use of such oil - but biodiesel production may be more destructive of the environment today than even coal mining. The point is that both current agricultural land as well as virgin land is diverted to production of fuel with all the damage that agriculture can do to the environment.

Sometimes it seems self-proclaimed greens are the worst enemies of the environment.

Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.

Anaerobic digesters have been utilized for centuries to convert manure to a more effective fertilizer. At first the methane that was separated was little more than an entertaining novelty. My doctor told me that the small village where he grew up in India derived all its ele electricity from digesters. The Sierra Club fights tooth and nail against efficient modernized use of anaerobic digesters with Norman Rockwell-like pictures of happy cows and pigs playing in green pastures.

Rockwell and his mistress must be roaring with laughter up in heaven. Rockwell actually used his mistress as a model on occasion in his Saturday Evening Post covers. Can you imagine the brouhaha that would have caused in the puritanical 50's if they knew? Puritans must be the most sex-crazed people on earth with the persistence of so many through the centuries. :-)

When can we have a serious discussion in the country about energy?

How bad do things need to get?

Best, Terry