Clean coal viable choice for energy
10/2/2008Al Gore says young people should engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal-fired power plants that don't capture and store carbon.
The theoretical way to do this is to compress greenhouse gases into liquid form and pump the fluid into huge underground storage facilities. The process is theoretical because it would require enormous quantities of materials and underground space, would take decades to build, and be outrageously expensive.
Besides, if a utility executive had proposed doing it, you can bet Mr. Gore would be screaming about contamination of ground water by toxic chemicals.
Even so, the Obama-Biden campaign says they support clean coal.
Apparently Sen. Joe Biden didn't get the memo. In Maumee on Sept. 24, Mr. Biden said, "We're not supporting clean coal." China is building coal plants to support its growing economy but, Mr. Biden said, "No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they are going to build them, over there."
The ban on drilling for oil on the continental shelf is set to expire because more than 70 percent of Americans think we should develop our own energy resources.
But Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D., N.M.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says the ban on drilling will be reinstated after the election.
I remember an economics professor's succinct response to a question: What if the economy grows faster than the supply of energy?
"It can't," he said.
LeMoyne Mercer
Shortford Drive
The recent proposal to establish a solar field in Toledo on top of the Dura Avenue Landfill demonstrates progressive thinking. However, it doesn't go nearly far enough. The world will little notice an experimental field that powers 200 homes.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), in conjunction with local officials, should be seeking federal funding to convert all the property formerly occupied by the Jeep facility into a solar field.
In doing so, we put the land to good use, clean up the vacated property, and tell everyone traveling I-75 that Toledo is not what they imagined.
Also, in light of Toledo's historically high electric rates, any relief we can get by placing our excess energy onto the local electric grid would be significant. The action would show the world that Toledo is not just another Rust Belt city wallowing in self pity.
The time has come for Toledo to stop the cheerleading for our fledgling solar industry and finally score a touchdown.
Wayne North
Collingwood Boulevard
So many articles in The Blade provoke tears of grief, frustration, anguish, discouragement, and despair.
The uplifting joy I feel in reading the coverage of the Frisch family's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also brings tears - happy ones.
Many thanks to all involved.
Betty Seigneur
Delta, Ohio
For Ken Downs and others envious of the luck of the draw visited on the Frisches, I urge improving their contact with the universe, unchanging at least since William Blake (1757-1827) wrote:
Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
The odds against hitting any lottery are long. I say let's celebrate with the winners, rather than gripe about their good fortune, mad that it isn't ours.
Eileen Foley
Lowe Road
Mother Teresa of Calcutta stated as she received her Nobel prize that "the fruits of abortion are nuclear war." She was indicating that the complete disrespect for life, especially the lives of the unborn, would bring about a nuclear war. She also said, "I hate the killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that the mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"
Is the hypocrisy not obvious? Democrats cite how many millions of children living outside the womb would benefit from universal health care, but pledge to uphold legalized abortion, under which nearly 50 million children living inside the womb have been killed since 1973. They decry that almost 4,000 soldiers have lost their lives in five years of war, yet vow to uphold a law that allows nearly 4,000 innocents to be murdered each day.
Democrats exude compassion for the human condition. Unfortunately, this does not extend to the most vulnerable members of our society - unborn children. They offer no protection to those living in the womb.
Abortion should not be merely "just one of many issues to consider." The right to life is fundamental. Without this, all other rights are null and void. One must first have existence to enjoy anything else.
It is obvious that this election's forerunners are life versus death.
Wendy Szempias
Cuba Street
"Four more years. Four more years." If you listen closely, that's what they're really chanting at McCain rallies.
For someone who claims that he won't govern like George W. Bush, John McCain sure does campaign like him.
With the slime factory on mandatory overtime spewing sarcasm, innuendo, swift boat-style attacks, and a daily smoke screen to hide behind, it's dj vu all over again. People, please, let's not be as dumb as they think we are - not again.
David A. Hopson
Brookford Drive
I recently read a story in The Blade about registering the homeless who live on the streets of Toledo and in its shelters to vote. The founder of Toledo's Tent City, Ken Leslie, who is working with Lisa Ward, believes that these homeless people are disenfranchised when it comes to the ability to cast their votes in elections.
While I certainly applaud Ken's work with the homeless in our city, I cannot believe that he or Ms. Ward truly believes the vast majority of homeless are capable of making informed decisions on the issues or candidates.
Having worked as a police officer in this city for over 20 years, I would beg to differ with them.
The vast majority of the people whom I have observed or come into contact with living on the streets or in our shelters have mental issues that I believe would impair their ability to make an informed and intelligent decision on the issues and candidates to vote for.
Ms. Ward states this effort to register the homeless is 100 percent nonpartisan. Yet she writes a blog called the Liberal Common Sense and the Glass City Jungle. I cannot help but feel that there would be some heavy liberal influence put on the homeless to vote a certain way.
In a similar registration drive in Ohio by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an investigation is under way into voter-registration fraud in assisting the low income and homeless in registering to vote.
And just one night at Toledo's Tent City is not enough time to truly educate the homeless on all the issues and presidential candidates which will be on the November ballot but absolutely have the right to vote for.
Joel Scherer
Oregon
It was probably a good thing that in the last year aliens from other galaxies have not decided to visit the United States. With all the political ads that denigrate every candidate in sight, an unsuspecting citizen would not know what to do if an alien arrived and ceremoniously said: Take me to your leader.
Mel Pommeranz
Lakeside, Ohio