In an article from the NY Times about the courts shooting down regulations by the EPA for coal burning power plants make your opinion and post your comments about the overall situation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/washington/09mercury.html?ex=1360472400&en=8c58dc63bf81fce2&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
26 responses so far ↓
aceman13t // February 11, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I will not give my opinion until after the week is out because it is just that my opinion about the topic. Hopefully some others will come up with some ideas and thoughts about how this will affect them in the future.
cheeze1 // February 11, 2008 at 11:21 pm
I think america should put more research into alternate fuels and energy. Coal is bad for the enviroment and is slowly killing our planet.
fatguy3232 // February 13, 2008 at 1:17 am
I think there is a point were agency’s like the EPA do to much I mean environmental protection is a big issue but there is a time were it does more harm then good were it restricts business so much that we need to go else were for fuel (middle east/Venezuela) that uses the money they make form that to fund terrorism. Also we do need to look into alternative fuels but being able to switch completely to an non fossil based fuel will take years and lots of money so it will take a vary long time.
andrewsmith11 // February 13, 2008 at 3:08 am
we need to increase spending on research for alternative fuels, or even fuel conservation. eventually, we will not have any oil or coal to turn to. so if we start using fuels that can be reused now, it may help stunt the extinction of fossil fuels.
boner9 // February 13, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I believe we do need to go more towards alterate fuels but with new regulations for coal burning plants the putoff is extremely less dangerous to the environment than it was even 10 years ago. A great example of this is the Marshall Steam Station owned by Duke Energy. At that plant they recently finished construction on the scrubbers which cut down on sulfur dioxide emissions by 95 percent.
dukefan226 // February 14, 2008 at 2:21 am
I think that the environment is a very important issue, and it deserves our concern and protection… to a point. That point comes when the United States has to, due to strict environmental laws, rely almost solely on oil from other countries. The united states uses about 20.7 million barrels per day of oil, and it only produces about 1/4 of that (about 5.1 million barrels per day) [url]http://www.eia.doe.gov/steo[/url]
So that means the US imports about 3/5 of the oil we use. However there is an untapped source of domestic oil in ANWR (Artic National Wildlife Reserve) that remains untapped thanks to the work of environmentalists.
As to the production of alternative fuels I think that should be left entirely to the private sector. The car company that makes the first vehicle that can run fully off an alternative fuel will make so much money off of it that there is bound to be research into the development of such a vehicle anyway I see no need to spend tax payer dollars o n it.
jramiller // February 14, 2008 at 5:02 am
Get fuel from Alaska
the caribou can deal for a while
and research alternative fuels at the same time.
CaseFace // February 14, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I think that it would be reasonable to look into spending more on research for alternate fuels and such. Just as Andrew said “eventually, we will not have any oil or coal to turn to.” I agree with this because there is never an everlasting supply of anything on Earth. The more we use it the less there is of it. I also believe it would be reasonable to look into fuel that isn’t as harmful to our environment.
madsc1ent1st // February 14, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I can’t get to the atrticle y’all are looking at because the link try’s to make me to pay something to the New York Times, but by reading your reactions, I’m guessing that the EPA tried to get something passed but the Supreme Court shot it down. The future will be what it will be, so we should lokk for ways to svae our limited fuel supply, while actually doing something about global warming.
madsc1ent1st // February 15, 2008 at 12:04 am
Never mind that, I figured out how to get around it and my views still remain pretty much the same, except that I now agree with their plan because I personally don’t want to be breathing in any poisinous substances.
madsc1ent1st // February 15, 2008 at 12:06 am
By the way, you should read the main science blog for today, Food For Thought.
xstephi92x // February 15, 2008 at 12:40 am
I think that America needs to start research into alternate fuels because one day we wont have fossil fuels. One a website a found it talked about how much time we have left with fossil fuels. it has many charts with a lot of reading. Somewhere it talked about 86 years as fossil fuels become scares.
Scientist should really consider researching into alternatves.
web site
http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/fossilfuels.htm
blackrosery // February 15, 2008 at 2:12 am
i believe that if there is safer, more eco-friendly energy we should use that. If we polute the earth there will be no reason for us to need energy we will all be dead. Being dead is not good, and niether is poluting. We should use wind or sunlight.
tarheelkid17 // February 15, 2008 at 2:40 am
i think that america should start cutting down on the useage of coal its killing our ecosystems and animals we should start looking for other ways to get fuel
maroonflamingo // February 15, 2008 at 3:56 am
Another failed attempt by the Cheney-Bush administration to help out the big corporations.
Obviously they knew that the “cap-and-trade” program was illegal/amerciable because an EPA committee even said that cutting mercury emissions by only 70% was possibly hazardous to childrens’ health.
Not to mention that if the “cap-and-trade” regulation passed it would vastly increased taxes for no clear climate benefits. “Cap-and-trade” policies have previously been tested in Europe and proved to be a complete failure.
twatdidusay09 // February 15, 2008 at 4:12 am
i think we need to spend more and go deeper into researching alternate fuels. the ones we use now are harmfull to our enviroment and if we spend more and find something less harmfull it will help our enviroment and us in the long run.
maroonflamingo // February 15, 2008 at 4:41 am
Oh, I also recently read that Google is expected to outspend the entire US government on alternative-energy projects.. I believe there is something wrong with that picture and that the US government should boost their efforts and spending tremendously.
amariademao // February 15, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I believe that America should invest more money into the research of environmentally safe programs.
We need to find alternate fuels as well. Oils is running low and steadily becoming more and more expensive. Using coal as a fuel source is also very bed for the environment.
prancingunicorn // February 15, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I do believe that in some cases coal burning can be good because it benefits the economy. We know where it is and how to extract it.
Overall i believe we do need to find an alternative to burning things like coal because we will eventually run out. So if we dont find a way then in the long run the economy could be badly affected.
sfgiants5590 // February 15, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I beleive that research in altermative fuel sources are a very important issue the government needs to focus on. We all complain about the prices of gas so why isn’t there any action being taking.
hippiegoddess20 // February 16, 2008 at 2:11 am
Alternative fuel sources are definitely the world’s best bet. Think about it, in the near future, the prices of gas will have risen so high that consumers will refuse to spend that much money. In order to continue using cars, we will HAVE to find a better way to make them go. Unless we all become Mormons and ride our bikes everywhere.
germanrobot // February 16, 2008 at 2:19 pm
well the mormons have pluses i could do with a few wives….
anyways the sources of fossil fuels are steadily decling… not so much worried about the world because global shifts and natural disasters and all that we believe were causing has happen before.
Fuel sources new to be converted to a new form of transportation… Theres alot of people we need something more common in the universe
Anonymous // February 20, 2008 at 3:06 am
my mom told me the other day that gas was 85 cents a gallon when i was like 3. now its about 3.15. that just goes to show you how the oil in the world has decreased over the years. we should stop drilling all the other holes in other countries and get to researching into alternative fuels, ones that are not bad for the environment. we need to conserve as much fossil fuels that we have. one day eventually we will run out of fossil fuels to use, so i think that we should start researching now so we dont have that problem occuring in the future.
emasonnn // February 20, 2008 at 3:07 am
i forgot to sign in the one above me is mine.
sorry.
brandthart08 // February 27, 2008 at 1:52 am
I just want to know who is boner9 lol thats crazy….crazy kids…o man…what does that even mean?
antichrist1 // February 28, 2008 at 1:54 pm
a nuclear power plant is much less detromental to the environment than a coal power plant despite the radioactive waste there are much more opertunities for nuclear power than are being exploited at this time… coal power plants can also be considered ticking time bombs a small malfunction could cause the entire facility to explodedue to high pressure and highly flamable ingredeants