October is National Energy Awareness Month! The White House created National Energy Awareness Month to reinforce just how important energy is to the United States. To celebrate, Behind the Plug will feature a series about energy in America. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3.
National Energy Awareness Month is coming to a close, and we’ve spent time this month thinking and talking about energy in America. We’ve shared where energy in the U.S. comes from (nearly half from coal), some key terms about energy policy and about how we meet the increasing demand for more electricity using clean coal technologies.
As we’ve said in the past, we need many sources of energy production to meet our country’s growing demand for electricity, but America still relies on coal’s always available baseload power. Coal is able to meet the country’s constant need for electricity and that’s important for places like hospitals and data centers that all rely on the dependable, stable electricity that coal provides.
The U.S. has more coal reserves than any other country in the world—nearly 272 billion tons of coal. The country uses about 1.1 billion tons annually, and at this rate, America’s coal reserves will last nearly 250 years. The future of American electricity is bright with coal.
Throughout the other months of the year, when you’re waiting for your coffee to brew or warming up by a heater, keep in mind where the majority of our electricity comes from: America gets more electricity from coal than from any other source.
But Energy Awareness Month is not over yet! Let your friends know with a tweet: Coal Keeps America Strong.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is committed to the idea that America can have the affordable, reliable electricity we need, with the clean environment we want. ACCCE’s Behind the Plug blog is the place for up-to-date news and analysis on clean coal technology developments and energy policy progress.
Your propaganda in USA Today “Too many Americans are being thrown from good-paying Jobs” is extremely deceptive and one sided. What you don’t point out is that coal burning is the dirtiest most unhealthy form of energy production in the country. The truth is more than 100,000 Americans have died because of unnecessary exposure to pollution from coal-fired power plants. In addition, one out of every 10 children (twenty-five million) now lives with asthma with coal being the primary contributor. $100 billion in healthcare costs can be attributed to your industry.
Your wonderful coal mining companies have blown up more than 500 mountains in Appalachia to uncover coal and have dumped millions of tons of waste into the valleys, buried or polluted more than 2,000 miles of streams and poisoned drinking water. A major waste product of coal burning is mercury which causes birth defects and developmental damage in young children.
Finally, coal plants are the largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions. Your Clean Coal campaign is the biggest lie and oxymoron ever perpetrated on the American people. Shame on you.