Bismarck, North Dakota News

" Coal accounts for 50% of the power in the USA, so all of you aganst coal fired power plants be brave and quit being hypocritical, turn off the power to your house. You can go ahead and quit using anything that was grown or produced using electricity. If you are against fossil fuels then you can get rid of your cars, bikes(rubber tires, plastic parts, foam rubber seat cushions), and anything else that is made using them, like your rubber soled shoes? Man made fabrics have to go as well.

When wind power is a constant power we can use it full time, but what do we do when the wind is not blowing?

Would someone who is against CO2 emission please explain to me this. Back 4,000 years ago we had lush plant life with huge plants and the CO2 level was much much higher than it is today. If CO2 is so bad why did plant life thrive back then? Since my SUV was not there to pollute what caused these high CO2 levels? Maybe, just MAYBE God got it right when he made the planet and let the CO2 levels be high so plants could grow. Maybe if we ran the CO2 levels sky high our crops would be unbelievably huge and we could feed the world on less land and use less diesel planting!! "

" To Puzzled: you need not get to the energy conference---there is a shelf full of books on the subject of energy at the Bismarck Public Library, or the Mandan Lib, or at Hazen, or Minot. Amazing things are going on in the energy industry, and we in ND are part of it. "

" The energy conference of last year featured a lecture by Dr. Chu of U Cal. Berkeley. He talked about bio fuels and the making of oil substitutes out of grass and waste crop material. The process now in the laboratories can work--when it is put on a mass scale which the U.S. would need, the bio-fuels farm would take Kilo-sections of land, and it will not work in freezing weather. Guess what? That leaves out the top half of the U.S. No bio-fuels for us. Well then there is solar. Guess again. We do not get enough sunlight up here in half the year that we really need the power, and there is no practical way to store it. Solar will take Kilo-sections of land. As to wind--there is no practical way to store the electricity when the wind blows, and we are out of power when it does not.
You will be surprised to learn that the coal industry will continue to improve in emission control and they are finding markets for CO2 and SO2.
One parting shot: the oil and energy sectors are vital to our state. You don't have to love them, but they make all our lives better in North Dakota. "

" Question: Which producees more pollution, the 40,000 homes previously heated with fossil fuels (mostly fuel oil) or the power plant that produces the energy to heat them today?

I for one am not ready to rely on only solar or wind for my heat. When it is -20 below zero and the wind is not blowing in the middle of the night it gets pretty uncomfortable in North Dakota. "

" not to worry, obama is on the record saying he will bankrupt the coal industry. when your lights go off, you can't watch opra, your well pump now is a bucket and rope, your electric heat goes cold, best be getting a chain saw and figure out how many trees you are going to cut down, to keep your lights on. what you will be going thru is a peice of cake compared to the minnesota folks, but at least they have a few trees.

coffee's brewin, can you smell it? "

" You are right..bottom line is THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CLEAN COAL. Furthermore, agriculture is the larges industry in our state. There are more jobs and money generated by it than any other industry. I believe second is the healthcare industry. (not sure on that)

Most people forget that when we finally convert away from coal that millions of green jobs will be created. They will be in the wind and solar industries.

No, we are not ready just yet but we never will be until king coal stops screaming and telling everyone we can't live without them. The truth is, we can. "

" To answer your question about sulfur...it is controlled as far as it's output. That is true for every generating facility in this country. There are EPA regulations on the amount of sulfur put into the atmosphere and they are strictly monitored so that should clear up your question on that. As far as carbon dioxide goes...too many ignorant people reading too many ignorant papers written by too many ignorant "scientists". That pretty much sums up CO2. The post written by Halatbis should be published, printed and sent to every member of government in the US. That was pretty spot on. "

" Halabis, coal and coal-fired power plants are not vital to the economy of North Dakota. Agriculture is! I would hate to see a prolonged drought or even permanent drought and desert conditions in North Dakota as a result of climate change, in order to save a few jobs. I dont think eating a lump of lignite coal would be very appetizing or nutritional. Perhaps the Tribune could write some un-biased articles about Clean Coal, as I work and am not able to attend the conference at Bismarck State College. Everything I have read tells me that Clean Coal is a misnomer but I could be wrong. Accurate information please. "

" Would someone in the coal industry or thermal-electric power plant industry explain in detail what they mean when they say Clean Coal? Please address the issues of sulfur dioxide going up the chimney of a thermal- electric power plant (sulfur dioxide is responsible for acid rain) and carbon dioxide also going up the chimney and being released into the atmosphere (carbon dioxide is one of the chief causes of climate change). Could someone from the coal industry and coal burning thermal-electric industries please address these two issues? "

" A final note to the previous post. There is an Energy conference coming up in Bismarck Nov. 10 and 11 with some good topics on the agenda. i would suggest that those interested attend the sessions. This is a continuation of conferences that started last year on the topics of energy and alternatives. See the Bismarck State College site for details. "

" The coal and coal-fired energy industry is vital to the ND economy as thousands of jobs depend upon it, and state revenue from the industry is considerable. That said, we need to understand that we are talking about peoples' livelihood in a very direct way.
I am not connected with the industry in any way, nor am I writing to defend it, but we need to be realistic in our expectations when it comes to environmental demands. Coal is the source of half of the electrical generation in the U.S., and it will continue to supply a large part for decades to come. We cannot shut it down without having alternatives. We do not have those alternatives at this time, nor will we for 20 or more years.
The writer, TR quotes articles, one in the WSJ. and apparently does not believe that the coal industry is working on pollution reduction, as they have been for many years. I suggest a trip to the coal fields in ND and talk with people in the know, you will find that they are spending a great amount of money on upgrades and retrofits for pollution control and capture.
The writer seems to think that government subsidies (our tax money) to aid these companies to reduce emissions is somehow wrong. You may think what you want, but consider this. Our government is funding energy research in dozens of areas plus money to industries to reduce pollution. This can be done another way. The industry can do these upgrades and charge every one a much higher rate for our power---your monthly power bill could double or triple--is that O.K. ? Or the plants could shut down and call it quits. Who is your supplier? Otter Tail? Montana Dakota? NSP? Who do you go to when they are out of business? Of course you can install your own wind generator (remember the Winchargers?) but what do you do when the wind doesn't blow? "

" Sounds like someone is campaigning against the Bush administration - and he isn't running for another term. And besides, the election is over. And we're going to have a new president and agenda - and with changes, I'm sure. I would also like to know who Big Coal is. In North Dakota, most of the coal users are co-ops, owned by rural residents throughout the region - and non profit entities. And finally, I like a mix of energy sources. Wind is good - but if we depend entirely on wind, my computer is only going to work about 30 percent of the time, and then I won' t be able to comment on this web site. "