Hail to the Chief-elect

There’s an excitement about the approaching Obama Presidency that has nothing to do with his race. Obama understands the importance of caring for our environment and the real and growing danger of climate change. He gets it, where so many in the past have obfuscated, attacked the science, or simply talked about the importance of reversing climate change while doing absolutely nothing about it. Although he did mention “clean coal” technology, I was particularly stoked that it was last among the solutions he listed and that he used the phrase “develop clean coal technologies.” During the campaign, I was afraid that Obama believed clean coal technology actually existed. I should have known better.

Clean coal does not exist. It’s dirty to mine, dirty when it burns and dirty when converted to liquid fuel. The sooner we can get away from all fossil fuels for electricity the better. And if we take the lead and improve the technology for solar and wind energy, we might just get China and India to stop burning coal as well.