Energy Dilemma

As oil and natural-gas prices remain high and lawmakers agonize over whether to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas, coal looms as an antidote — still relatively cheap despite recent price surges because of a boom in exports. While coal-fired power plants generate half of U.S. electricity, coal is the biggest carbon dioxide producer, accounting for 40% of worldwide emissions. CO₂ is the chief culprit in global warming. To environmentalists, coal is public enemy No. 1. A bill to curb global-warming gases fizzled in Congress in June, partly because of opposition from Peabody and the coal industry. It would have forced utilities and others to buy permits to emit carbon, passing the costs to consumers and boosting electric rates up to 45% by 2020.

About 30 coal-fired power plants are under construction around the country, the most in a generation. Yet the likelihood of climate-change legislation after a new president takes office has prompted U.S. utilities to cancel or delay about 60 coal plants the past year. That has injected at least a sliver of uncertainty into the coal industry's future: Some experts say its prospects are bleak if technology to capture CO₂ at coal plants and store it underground — preventing its release through the smokestack — proves too expensive for utilities.

· JJ Commentary: More CO₂ or less oil dependence. They typical choice between the lesser of two evils that constantly confronts a fallen world – i.e. until Jesus returns and “restores all things.”