The coal mining disaster followed by the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster should help us focus on the true costs of fossil fuels. There is no such thing as clean coal. It is dangerous to miners to extract it, it produces huge amounts of hazardous waste from processing, and it has terrible environmental impacts when it is burned. Getting coal out of the ground and burning it for energy kills people, makes people sick and destroys the environment. Many of the same things can be said about oil, although it is not as bad as coal. Extraction causes environmental harm and produces hazardous waste and burning it does the same.
The Obama Administration's proposed budget for FY2011 for Department of Energy for energy efficiency related programs is $2.35 billion. Environmentalist are applauding the Obama Administration for increasing that budget. (here). That number includes the budget for renewable energy sources. (here).
By comparison, news reports indicate that it will cost BP $6.0 million per day for this oil spill and that really doesn't cover all the collateral damage caused by the spill. (here) The cost to the insurance industry is currently estimated to be at least $1.5 billion which again will not cover the true cost of the impact. (here) None of these cost estimates include the environmental damage done by the oil to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and its shores or the damage done by the chemicals used to disburse the oil or damage to human health from those chemicals and the smoke and debris from burning the oil slick.
The direct costs of one oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be almost 2/3rds of the total amount that the United States government is proposing to spend in its FY2011 budget for alternative energy sources and energy efficiency programs. We have the money to become energy efficient using sustainable and environmentally safe sources, but we chose to let big energy companies stop us from doing so.
Remembering Patti Smith's quote from yesterday's post:
What I would have more of a problem with is, if I had to look back on my life and say, ‘Yeah I compromised here’ and ‘yeah I did this so I could get that’–once you start doing that it’s like a house of cards, it all falls apart.We have compromised ourselves, and the house of cards is falling down.
Where is President Obama? He is ordering a review of the rigs and complaining about BP and saying we won't drill until we find out what happened that caused this disaster. We rely on big energy companies to operate safely. We know that we cannot count on that, but even if we could disasters will happen. We should be focused on safe sustainable energy sources - wind, solar and geothermal. They all have their problems but they are much better than fossil fuels.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
I read a tweet from someone (can't remember who) that said "every a-hole that chanted 'drill, baby, drill!' during the 2008 election should head out to the Gulf and start cleaning up." I thought that was a pretty good tweet.
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