[LINK] Clean Coal

[David Boxall]

On 16/06/2012 9:52 AM, Frank O'Connor wrote:
> ...
> Call it 'carbon sequestration', call it 'carbon capture', call it 'clean coal' or whatever ...

This is well off-topic for Link, but I have to respond.

I live in the Hunter Valley; a coal-mining area for the better part of 
two centuries. There's a "Clean Coal" research station, not 50 
kilometres from my home - been there for years.

It strikes me that the coal industry does pretty much the same as the 
nuclear industry: externalises costs, so it can pretend it's a cheap 
source of energy. With nuclear, the costs are effectively infinite 
(because, in human terms, that's how long the waste remains deadly).

With coal, though the costs may be finite, they're huge. Greenhouse 
effects are just flavour of the month. Add:
- toxic outflows from mines into waterways;
- water that's been in contact with coal for millions of years, brought 
up by exploration bores to pollute potable aquifers;
- watercourses with their beds cracked by undermining (water goes down 
and gas comes up - they've been known to catch fire);
- formerly productive land, sterilised (what they call "remediation" 
will grow some sickly scrub, at best) and
- there's heaps more, but I think I've made my point.

Newcastle is a city that's been extensively undermined. The miners took 
their profits then pulled out, leaving voids under the city. With the 
closure of the BHP steelworks, the old port area was pretty much 
redundant so it's being redeveloped. Before anything can be built, they 
need to fill the voids. It adds millions to the cost of any building.

Should we demand that voids left by mining be filled, rather than left 
to cave in or become a problem for future generations? Should miners be 
forced to prevent associated pollution (and if they can't, should they 
be allowed to mine)? Should miners pay the full cost of their activities 
now, rather than leaving it to later generations?

Have we passed the point where we can afford to sacrifice productive 
land and potable water for short-term gains?

-- 
David Boxall                    |  For when the One Great Scorer comes
                                |  To mark against your name,
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  He writes-not that you won or lost-
                                |  But how you played the game.
                                                      --Grantland Rice