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The Environmental Spectator
Coal Matters — Even in Manhattan
Michael Bloomberg leads a mayoral crusade against “dirty” energy.
Coal today may seem of little relevance to many residents of New York City or other American urban centers. It long ago ceased to fuel the furnaces of their homes and apartment buildings in winter.
But long after it disappeared from the uses most visible to city dwellers, coal is still the critical fuel behind the everyday functions of their lives. Across the U.S. for more than a century, coal has remained quietly at work — providing in recent years nearly half the electricity that lights urban buildings and streets, keeps air conditioners humming on hot days and energizes computers and TVs to inform and entertain. Electricity generated with coal powers the factories that produce all manner of food, clothing, cars and other goods for Americans everywhere.
Coal maintains that role with good reason. It is America’s most abundant energy resource; our coal reserves are the world’s largest, sufficient to last more than 250 years. That abundance makes coal affordable; over the decades its price has been far more stable that of another major power generation fuel, natural gas. And way below costs those promising but still-unproven resources, solar and wind power.
Meanwhile, science has made coal a much cleaner fuel. Utilities’ use of coal for power generation has jumped more than 180 percent since 1970 but emissions from those plants have plummeted 75 percent. And the march of technology promises even cleaner coal in the years ahead.
Apparently, all those facts have escaped the attention of New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This month, he marshaled 90 U.S. mayors behind a campaign of misinformation that could in short order end the use of coal for power generation — and in doing so wipe out America’s historic coal industry.
In a letter to the EPA Administrator, Bloomberg and his fellow mayors expressed strong support for new air quality regulations that will shut down coal fired power generation on the grounds that coal is too “dirty” and must immediately be replaced with generation fueled by natural gas, solar and wind power.
Joining Mayor Bloomberg on the letter were a successor of mine as Mayor of Cincinnati, Mark Mallory, two other Ohio mayors (Michael Coleman of Columbus and Bruce Rinker of Mayfield Village), the senior elected officials of big cities from Atlanta to Boston Chicago, Denver, Houston and Los Angeles, and the chief executives of smaller but staunchly “progressive” strongholds such as Burlington, Vermont, Takoma Park, Maryland, Maui County, Hawaii, and Decatur, Georgia.
With one stroke of the pen, all wrote off the fuel that has helped make possible a century of economic growth in their cities. They accepted the higher electric rates that utility executives say are certainly on the way as today’s historically low natural gas prices zoom upward while wind and solar power, for the foreseeable future, remain very expensive.
The mayors also agreed, in signing that letter, to condemn the jobs of 555,000 Americans who mine, transport, market and utilize coal, along with their combined annual income of $36.3 billion.
All of this comes less than a year after Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to donate $50 million to the Sierra Club to support its nationwide campaign to eliminate coal-fired power plants.
On many levels, I have respect and admiration for Mayor Bloomberg. Elected in the dark days just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he helped rebuild the city both physically and emotionally. In that and other roles he has followed a course of pragmatic progressivism, addressing public concerns on issues with a common-sense approach that recognizes economic realities.
So I am surprised and very disappointed that he would lead his mayoral colleagues in demonizing a valuable American energy resource, assuring higher utility bills for Americans still strapped by a slow economic recovery, and wiping out one of our oldest industries.
My personal commitment to cleaning up and protecting our environment runs deep. I’m proud of the progress America has made these past 40 years from a land of smoggy skylines and dead rivers to one that is getting cleaner by the day.
But I also understand that our environmental ideals must be balanced with recognition of our economic challenges, both short- and long-term. We can’t build a stronger economy and create the millions of jobs we need if we’re paying sharply higher utility bills and killing a half million good-paying jobs in the process.
Numerous polls show that the majority of Americans share that pragmatism. I thought Michael Bloomberg was among them, until I saw that letter to the EPA Administrator.
About the Author
Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ken Blackwell
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Pecos Pete| 6.25.12 @ 7:43AM
Environmentalists will have us living in caves. Coal bad, caves good. The massive fires in the west are producing more "bad air" than all of the current coal fired electric generators combined.
TLP| 6.25.12 @ 9:09AM
Meanwhile, over in China, the Chinese will be driving around in their beautiful Automobiles, on their way to the Factories they own, to make sure that Production is still Kicking Ass, before they board the next Chinese Space Ship, for a nice little Vaction to the Chinese Moon Base, and a Tour of it's Super Laser Cannon, that is always pointed right at us.
Bon Voyage.
Von Mises Jr| 6.25.12 @ 8:20AM
I think someone should take away Nanny Bloombergs ponography and plastic sex toys. Forget about curing his political correctness. It is too far gone.
Mike Rogers | 6.25.12 @ 9:02AM
Perfect:
Lisa Jackson and Obama propose the death of coal and the dearth of coal-based energy. Ninety misguided mayors join together to support the coal ban.
Simple solution - when the rolling blackouts come, let those who wish to live without carbon-based electricity be the first to lose power - THEN we will see if the people of these misguided metropolises truly support their leaders! Pitchforks, anyone??
Bob K| 6.25.12 @ 11:10AM
If Bloomberg really believes this crap why are the starting to build a huge new Power Transmission Line transporting electricity from Central Pennsylvania's Coal Generation and Nuclear Plants into North Jersey? If he thinks that Natural Gas will generate the kind of electrical power New York City needs he is hallucinating!
Today's local editorial on this new Transmission Line here:
http://citizensvoice.com/news/.....-1.1334314
And I'll bet the steel to build those 150' high towers comes from China too!
Kwan| 6.25.12 @ 11:27AM
Remember converting the United States into a third-world banana republic consists of converting our energy sources from fossil fuels to wind, solar, algae, and cockroach guano.
wombat1| 6.25.12 @ 11:54AM
" I seen the lights go out on Broadway..."
Billy Joel
wolf| 6.25.12 @ 1:16PM
well lets see..add half million to the welfare rolls..increase immigration to take even more jobs away from americans..support a school system that has a 50% drop out rate...hey...i like this guy bloomberg..CA needs someone like him..wait..we have someone like him..gov jerry moonbeam brown..who is going to solve CA problems by raising taxes..again
Tom Kyba| 6.25.12 @ 1:27PM
My fantasy consists of placing Mayor Dink and his cohorts on an island where they can live with the results of their social engineering without trying to coerce the rest of us to follow their grade six level ideas.
Anthony| 6.25.12 @ 2:11PM
Oh spare us Ken, you sound like a RINO fool, making nice with Bloomberg. Bloomberg, the runt, stood on the shoulders of a true giant, Rudy Guliani, after the dark days of 9/11.
Rudy turned NY around. Bloomberg has turned a once great, sophisticated city, into a nanny state kindergarten.
Moe Blotz| 6.25.12 @ 3:39PM
Can Mr. Blackwell name a river besides the Cuyahoga that was "dead"?
bava32| 6.25.12 @ 2:29PM
As a resident of NYC I have no respect for Mr. Bloomberg. All his achievements were made on the back of his predecessor, Rudy Guiliani. Bloomberg was just a bored liberal billionaire who knew he could not run as a Democrat. There were just too many other contenders on that ticket. So he switched his registration and pretended to be a Republican. The residents of NY saw what Rudy did, and voted for another "Republican". At the end of his second term, he spit on the voters of NYC. We voted twice for term limits for the mayor and council members. He waited until it was too late for another referendum (2 were not enough for him), and then the council just voted to spit on us and go for a third term. After he was elected again, by a very small margin, he switched to Independent. He knew another trick like this would not work again, but going back to being a Democrat was really too much, so he went for the middle. But he is showing us how progressive and Liberal he is now. He wants to "force" us to understand that he knows better then us what good for us. We are just stupid, and he will run the nanny state for us. I despise him, as I despise any one who treats me the way he did. He is not worthy of respect.
cicero| 6.25.12 @ 4:47PM
It is all our own fault. We elect these people who lost all their common sense with their first $100 million, and think everyone lives like them. Bloomberg doesn't need coal, or any other kind of cheap energy, so why should anyone else? He can hire a bunch of people with BIC lighters to stand in strategically located places in his home and offices, and light them up when it gets cold. Can't we all just get with the program? And the ninnies on the left follow him in lock step, because they want to be sure that enperor likes them, and invited them to the next party.
JJF| 6.25.12 @ 4:47PM
Environmental matters often lead to confusion between pollution and global warming. Clean coal usually refers to eliminating particulates and sulfur compounds from smokestacks. Various control mechanisms like scrubbers and precipitators have largely accomplished this since 1980. But when "environmentalists" say they want to reduce "carbon" emissions, they are referring to the colorless, odorless, non-polluting carbon dioxide gas. We exhale it every day. So when so-called environmentalists tell us that coal is dirty, we think of smoke, but they mean CO2, the combustion product of all carbonaceous materials including biofuels.