Conventional Energy Disguised as Clean

We live in the age of sound bites, a time when ugly truth is regularly tipped on its ear and spun by marketing magic. Our spin doctors don’t limit their slogans to big business ad campaigns. Our government, too often influenced by special interest groups, uses these slogans as well.
   Phrases like “Clean Coal Technology” and “Clean Burning Natural Gas” blanket the media. We hear these slogans so often, from both energy companies and our government leaders, it’s easy to believe them.

Biomass Energy

   Biomass energy is energy derived from plants and animals. We grow crops specifically to produce biomass energy, such as corn to make ethanol. But we also burn trees and other plant refuse to make electricity and harvest methane gas from animal excrement. Yes, biomass is renewable. But we could certainly use it faster than we can grow it. And when we grow crops for fuel, we are using land that could be used to grow food.
   While it has long been argued that burning plants is less environmentally damaging than burning coal, not everyone agrees. The Massachusetts Environmental Energy Alliance reports that burning biomass  emits as much fine particulate matter as coal, one-and-a-half times as much carbon monoxide, and one-and-a-half times as much carbon dioxide, It certainly isn’t clean. 

Nuclear Energy

   Yes, nuclear energy is touted as a clean source of energy, though every step of production from mining to waste containment places humans and the environment at great risk. A typical reactor produces 20 to 30 tons of high-level nuclear waste each year, dangerously radioactive waste that remains toxic for thousands of years. Add to this the risk of human error, terrorist acts, natural disasters (such as earthquakes), and equipment failure, and nuclear energy is clearly the dirtiest and the most dangerous energy resource known to man.

Clean Coal

   Clean coal? There’s an oxymoron for you. Coal’s negative impacts begin with its mining and preparation and continue through combustion, waste storage, and transport. Coal mining strips the

land, creating wastelands where acidic water often flows into nearby rivers and streams, and mines emit methane, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Coal-fired power plants pollute the air with sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter, and heavy metals. Our waterways are polluted with mercury from coal-burning. And coal plants consume more water than any industry other than agriculture.

Natural Gas

   Natural gas commercials abound. Clean Natural Gas! But is it so clean? So safe? The recent PG&E pipeline explosion would suggest otherwise. And natural gas hot water heaters, furnaces and stoves add to indoor air pollution, even when working properly.
   Natural gas power stations contribute to air pollution and global warming, pumping particulate matter and gases into the air.
   There are two methods of drilling for gas. One is to drill down for a pocket of gas. Under high pressure, the gas rises and is simply captured like oil. The other method is hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique that injects water, salt, and hazardous chemicals deep into the earth to fracture rock formations to release natural gas. Wastewater from these operations can pollute groundwater with chemicals, saline, and cancer causing compounds.  
   We are ripping up the land, creating environmental devastation through mining and drilling, for non-sustainable fossil fuels that will be used up in the next hundred years. We fight wars to control these resources. We’ve created an economy and a lifestyle dependent on their use and abuse while ignoring the price we’ve paid. There is virtually no clean water in the United States; mercury from burning coal has contaminated our fish. Acid rain destroys plant life. Drilling and mining contaminate ground water. Nuclear waste is accumulating. And yet, the brainwashing media campaigns continue. The next time you hear “clean coal, clean natural gas, or clean nuclear energy”, think again.