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Learn the Hard Lessons of Coal Pollution

Use foresight to get smart regulations in place, then we can talk about fracking

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This young man knows little of coal . I venture to say that I could take him to some reclaimed coal mines and he would not know they were even mined. We reduced pollution from electrical coal plants substantially (a reduction of up to 90%)d from 1970 and still calls it dirty coal. It is what drives electricity in this country and the state of Ohio. THere is a reason all the renewals have been less than 1% until the government began pushing them. (Handing out money) He also appears to know little of O&G. These people are the NIMBY's and obstructionist. Good state regulatory rules and law work . Keep the Feds out-- they kill common sense with their over regulatory nature.

John of OH 7:16PM December 03, 2011

I enjoy the ad's on this page sponsored by Shell. Also, please site your references.

Taras of CO 1:00PM November 30, 2011

Shameless liar. That's the only response I can think of to this absurd piece. Well, ok, I guess it's possible the writer is merely hopelessly ignorant on the topic of his own column, but either way, U.S. News should be ashamed of putting such a hack job on its website.

Comparing the health or environmental impacts of natural gas development to coal is the height of intellectual dishonesty. The truth, of course, is that natural gas has the potential to greatly diminish the horrible negative impacts of coal by replacing it in power generation. These new shale plays give the nation the ability to do that in a decade if policymakers quit listening to the paid propagandists of the coal industry, which this writer may well be.

As recently as two weeks ago, Obama EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson confirmed that she has NO EVIDENCE OF ANY KIND that hydraulic fracturing presents a threat to drinking water. The air emissions impacts of fracking are a pin prick compared to the filth spewed into the atmosphere by a single coal plant. Radioactivity in returned frac water occurs extremely rarely, and only in isolated parts of the country, contrary to the writer's effort to imply it is common in all returned water.

And by the way, drill pads have ALWAYS taken up 5 to 6 acres of land. ALWAYS, going back 100 years. The writer's implication that this is something new only betrays his abject lack of knowledge on this subject matter.

Go back to writing about something you know about, whatever that may be. You are hopelessly lost on this subject.

David in Houston of TX 9:19AM November 30, 2011