Comments on: What coal does to the land…

By: Daniel Elstner

Daniel Elstner — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:03:30 +0000

Hate to nitpick, but the Greens aren’t in power anymore. The Social Democrats have succeeded in keeping the policy even though their new partner, the Christian Democrats, would rather do away with it. Typical politics: The one rare time the politicians suddenly care about not looking opportunistic, you don’t want them to care.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and do not try to introduce that, um, nuclear power vs. Jews angle on your next trip to Germany. But you probably know that already.

By: DV82XL

DV82XL — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:09:23 +0000

And surprise, surprise – the countries with the most coal are the ones with the most vocal, politically connected and effective antinuclear movements.

By: drbuzz0

drbuzz0 — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:43:36 +0000

Well, it is a secure domestic source. It’s also a secure domestic source for the US and for Russia and for China and Australia and many other countries. That’s the *problem* we are not going to run out of it. Really I wish we would. Despite the thousands of square miles torn to pieces and destroyed there are hundreds of thousands of square miles more of coal seems waiting to be dug up.

Really, we’d be better off if there wasn’t so much damn coal. I like a quote I found on the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists (who I don’t always agree with but who hit it on the head with this one):

“Coal is cheap, plentiful and dirty — as cheap as dirt, as plentiful as dirt, and as dirty as dirt — since after all, coal is little more than dirt that burns.”

Source: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/fossil_fuels/offmen-how-coal-works.html

By: DV82XL

DV82XL — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:38:26 +0000

Germany’s heavily subsidized coal-mining industry unites the interests of some of the country’s largest companies and with those of unions that can swing huge numbers of votes.

The coal-subsidy program has for decades sustained an industry that was once the backbone of Germany’s industrial sector but has since been vastly underpriced by cheaper labor abroad. Legislation obliges the German electricity industry to use costly domestic coal, but it lets the companies pass the cost on to customers.

Federal and state governments also transfer billions DM annually to the steel industry as compensation for having to buy cokes made from domestic hard coal for crude steel production.

Also, the extensive lignite deposits in eastern Germany convey the impression of a relatively secure domestic energy supply, an issue on the political Right.