Future of coal-based power plants in Colorado
Re: “Coal’s power surge,” Oct. 1 business news story.
Thank you to The Denver Post for reporting the troubling news on the vast expansion of coal-fired plants in Colorado. It is hard to believe that with all the proven dangers of coal burning – mercury, soot and global warming – that Colorado would bet its future on such plants.
Coal is the nicotine of the electric power industry; it is cheap, addictive and dangerous to our health. The chief factor in coal’s favor is that it is “cheap.” Yet our children and our children’s children will deeply lament that we were so short-sighted and cowed into silence. Will the utilities be able to fix Earth’s thermostat or replace the melted North Pole? Has anyone noticed the relentless record high temperatures? No one will ever be able to say that we were not warned about the dark side of coal.
With Amendment 37, Coloradans voted loud and clear in favor of a 21st century energy future, not the grim smokestacks of 19th century coal plants. The better way forward for Colorado is to make coal pay for its health damages and level the economic playing field for more innovative energy solutions.
Michael Banks, Boulder
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It’s surprising that a story considering the economics and viability of coal plants would fail to mention the probability of some form of carbon tax/carbon trading scheme before these plants go online. Utilities are monopolies that must prove to regulators that their new generation is the least-cost option. Billion-dollar coal plants are on the least-cost bubble now; a carbon tax will make options such as more aggressive efficiency and portfolio-based wind (the wind doesn’t blow all the time, but it’s always blowing somewhere) more economically viable, not to mention the pollution issues, which also didn’t come up in the story.
Second, the sentence “Many scientists believe that carbon emissions are a contributor to global warming” is ridiculous. Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius wrote about carbon dioxide’s role in the greenhouse effect in 1890s, and no reasonable atmospheric scientist argues the opposite. For what it’s worth, coal-fired power plants already generate a third of U.S. carbon emissions, or about the same as the entire transportation sector, including shipping and aviation. The new coal plants would certainly contribute to global warming.
Todd Neff, Denver
Using profiling to prevent school shootings
I spent 30 years with a major airline, and I personally profiled (gasp) everyone I saw boarding the plane. The person in the Platte Canyon High School killing did not fit within the scope of any profile that should have permitted him to be near or in a school that was in session. There should be a required profiling class for all senior high school students. Any person with any degree of intelligence would compliment a young person for being alert. Some politically correct, sensitive people would be offended.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If a few offended people is the price to pay for a life, it is well worth it.
Jim Reid, Denver
Comparing presidents
Re: “Bush visits; Dems feast,” Oct. 5 news story.
I did a double take. Then a triple. I rubbed my eyes until they almost bled. This man, Bob Beauprez, is running for governor of our state? He is one of two major-party candidates? I couldn’t believe what I had just read in your paper. In quotes, meaning he really said it?
“In the time of great trials, great leaders emerge – Washington, Lincoln, Churchill and Bush.”
Did he laugh afterwards? Sure, President Bush had just earned him a cool half million for a 30-minute luncheon speech, but did Beauprez even have a clue as to what he was saying? Weren’t Washington and Lincoln known for their honesty? Who of those three great historical leaders led a country into a costly quagmire, which actually made the country less safe, while dropping the ball on the real mission, all based on false pretenses?
Hopefully Beauprez’s own unimaginable words will help lead to his undoing in November. Colorado cannot afford to have a raving neoconservative as its next governor.
Bob Sargent, Louisville
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