Stick To The Facts

                                    

I find it somewhat ironic that critics at the Sierra Club and elsewhere call our America’s Power campaign “misleading” but never can provide one single fact that is inaccurate.

Why do journalists use that quote in their stories without asking the critic to elaborate and provide a claim to back up the statement?

They are entitled to that opinion, but opinions won’t keep the lights on!

These critics say we should use more renewable energy resources (we support renewable power), but get away without providing any credible energy forecasts to support their claim that renewables like wind and solar could significantly replace traditional energy resources like coal, nuclear, and natural gas.

You see, I’m all for a debate — but it needs to be about the facts.

Here are the facts as I see them:

• We rely on coal today (about half of our electricity is produced by coal). Is there any debate on that subject?
• We’re going to need to rely on coal for the foreseeable future, both here in the U.S. and around the world. Does the Sierra Club or anybody else have any forecast that shows that not to be the case?
• Generating electricity from coal is less expensive that other energy alternatives. Does the Sierra Club doubt the U.S. Department of Energy data backing that up? Given everything that is going on with today’s economy, I’d love to see someone try to say that low-cost energy is not important to our economy and working families.
• To date, the use of technology has made it possible to produce more electricity from coal to meet our country’s growing energy demand with fewer emissions of pollutants regulated by federal and state clean air laws. (This does not include greenhouse gases, but I’ll get to that in a second.) Again, can the Sierra Club contradict that fact?
• Finally, we believe that by continuing to invest in technology, we can reduce emissions even further, including the capture and safe storage of CO­2­.

As I look at forecasts provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and a host of other credible independent sources -- we’re going to need to use coal for the foreseeable future. And just as it has up until this point, advances in technology will allow us to use coal with fewer emissions – including eventually the capture and safe storage of carbon.

Does the Sierra Club (or anybody else for that matter) have any widely accepted facts to debate those points?

Or in other words, do they have a plan that will allow us to meet our environmental goals, keep the lights on and still ensure that we can pay the bill at the end of the month?

If so, I haven’t heard it yet.