Breaking Away From Coal
New regulations have come into effect from Washington saying that 11 generators at four plants and that would have cost 2 million dollars and that would have gone over the limit of cost of 1.5 million. The company has been coal generated for decades but then heard about carbon regulation and knew they had to change. Many companies across the USA are reliazing this. At least ten companies over a year and half are planning to close their oldest and least efficent coal burning generators before 2019. Gas burning is a lot cleaner than burning coal in factories. Dan Eggers says that this has the potential to reshape energy consumption in the US significantly and permanently. Coal is also getting beat by nuclear and renewable energy but scientists think that gas will still win. There is one worry though that drilling for gas maybe hurt or endanger the groundwater.
I personally think that it is great that people are finding a way to make the air cleaner but still having factories that make things. Gas is so much clener than coal. I agree with Eggers when he says that this may change the US. Just changing a couple companies will make a different. Imangine if every factory changed. It wouldn't complelty take away air pollution but it would certainly help.
4 Questions...
1. Do you think it's a good idea to change all the factories all at once to gas?
2. How many factories do you think will have changed to gas by 2020?
3. Do you think this could change the US energy consumption?
4. Should they still drill for gas even if it could endanger our groundwater?
I definitely think that changing to gas could be benificial to us. Even though it may not be the best way for people to get electricity for their factories, it's much better than the coal that they have been using and some kind of good change is better than no change at all. Like I said, even though the drilling may hurt the earth a little bit, it's still better than the pollution that would be happening for using coal, and we need to be decreasing the amount of pollution that we're emmiting.
ReplyDeleteThree More Questions:
1.) Do you think that there is any other form of energy that will become more popular than gas during this process ?
2.)Do you think that changing these 20-some factories will make that big of a diffrence ?
3.) How manny other factories changing to gas do you think it will take to considerably lower the amount of pollution in the air ?
I agree with the article and i even hope that the U.S government would finally understand that coal is a unique resource for the world and we should not waste it, we should alternate the use of natural gas and coal, we have to keep track of the coal and not let it slip from our fingers. we should be more conservative on the way we use the coal and be much more careful. I also agree with you when you said that it would definitely help to our pollution problem and might even solve it.
ReplyDeleteI have 3 questions for you, guys:
1. Do you think that the use of natural gas is more expensive than the use of our coal?
2. Do you prefer that our electricity will have less efficient by it would be more pollution free?
3.How many factories do you think might change their way of making electricity in the next couple of years to natural gas or even solar energy?
I am glad that the transition from the dirtiest fossil fuel, which is coal, to a cleaner energy source is finally happening. Natural gas was discovered not too long ago and it is great that we realized that we could use it to create electricity, instead of burning it and wasting it to get to oil. There is so much pollution in this world and coal is probably one of the most serious contributors. Finding a new clean energy source is good for the whole world and if gas turns out to be a very efficient way to generate electricity, then I believe this trend will sweep around the globe and many countries who can afford to convert to gas, will do so. This is a very good scenario and I hope it plays out this way in the future. There is the issue of the possible contamination of groundwater though. I think that when the first factories start being converted, scientists should constantly check the groudwater for a long time after the factory is converted. If it harms the groundwater then the world would have to find yet another energy source, but it would be necessary because water is a very precious substance on Earth, that cannot be contaminated or wasted.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 2:
I think that not too many factories will be converted by 2020 because although 10 factories are on board with using natural gas for energy, I think the other factories will be cautious and stand by and watch how efficient using this energy source is before they convert. This way they are not taking a risk with their company and they will be able to see if the results are positive or negative for using natural gas.
I understand where you guys are coming from when you say that we should change to gas becasue it can and will significantly reduce the amount of pollution that those factories give off. But think about this, if these factories are starting to succeed, then other factories will change. We only have about 100 or so years of coal left and only about 70-80 years of gas left. If factories switch then we will have a lot less gas for our car and heating homes. I think this would be bad and could start a great battle over high prices for gas for our cars and for posession for gas. I am glad we can find ways to reduce pollution, but companies only think about themselves. They should take every aspect into consideration when dealing with somthing so important.
ReplyDeleteThree new questions:
1. Do you think that what i said would happen? Could there be a battle over high prices and posession?
2. If factories switch, how drastically do you think our oil supply would drop? How many years would we have left?
3. how expensive do you think the price of gas for our cars would become if companies started to switch to gas?