BY RUSSELL TURNER
MONEY TO BLOW
It has been many years since I have heard that old expression. In reality it is what most of us would call money that we could use on some luxury item; blow money is any money not allocated to pay a bill or some necessity. From personal experience I seem to have less and less disposable money every day. We are assured by our government with their phony numbers that inflation is not a problem, I guess that they might be right, especially when they fail to count the increases in food and the cost of energy.
The increasing cost of all fuel sources has taken a huge toll on the pocketbooks of all Americans. I can remember when you could fill your car up with gas for 15 dollars; now the same tank will cost three times as much. Because of the extra cost, people are unable to eat out as much or take a much-needed vacation. Because of the policies of the current administration we Americans are going to have less blow money in the future.
For years the coal industry has been under attack by the EPA and other groups, because of those attacks we Americans have seen our electric bills continue to go up, but we haven’t seen anything yet. Coal is one of the most abundant sources of energy that America has. I recently read an article about American coal being shipped to Europe because the regulations to use it in this country are making it prohibitive. U.S. coal exports are on track to set a record for the third straight year; the European Union countries imported 47.2 million tons of U.S. coal last year, up from 13.6 million tons in 2003.
In 1990, coal was the fuel for 55 percent of the power generated in America. The figure is now 39 percent. Our coal is seen in Europe as an inexpensive fuel option. This means American consumers are being denied a cheap fuel because of extremist environmental concerns. Groups such as the Sierra Club are determined to eradicate coal from the U.S. electricity generation mix. While some dream of all of our energy needs being supplied by solar or wind power, with today’s technology it is not possible or economically feasible.
We live in a global economy and we need to stay competitive with the rest of the world, we cannot compete with other countries when we foolishly sell our inexpensive energy while using something that is not as cost effective. Over the years our power companies have developed technology that has greatly cleaned up the emissions from coal plants. Coal has supplied our nation with a relatively cheap source of electricity. Without coal, the sky is the limit for the cost of electricity. For those of you who like to spend some blow money, without coal you will have less of it to spend.
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