Duke Energy Coal Ash issue heats up. You know I am not that impressed with what I hear about the “dangers” of coal ash, except, you know, coal is evil.
NC sides with Duke.
Southern Enviro Law Center and other enviros looking for legal fees and a good outcome from Judge Ridgeway, but they’ll have to wait. Too bad.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nc-sides-with-duke-in-appeal-of-coal-ash-ruling/2014/04/08/d02f2026-bf38-11e3-9ee7-02c1e10a03f0_story.html
I have waited a long time for someone, anyone to make sense about coal ash. Even our readers and commenters assume coal ash must have something wrong with it because it comes from coal. It’s like condemning ash from a fireplace as toxic.
There is nothing that I can excuse about this panic–it just plays into the chemophobia, coalophobia of the nut cases.
I think you missed the point.
Coal ash is a) free b) aids traction c) not as toxic to roadside vegetation as salt c) melts ice at temps lower than salt will.
Dale ! Till they realized that the heat absorbing properties of the Ash was limited and adding more Ash did not melt more ice since only the surface absorb heat.
I recall back in the bad old days in Colorado coal ash from the power plants was used on the roads a cheap (free) alternative to salt. Also had the advantage of absorbing heat … who knew?
The play on politics has been interesting. McCrory, Republican, has been in office since January, 2013. The previous 12 years, the governors were Democrats with less than stellar ethics. McCrory is the 4th Republican Governor of NC since Reconstruction. Duke’s former CEO was knee deep in Democrat crony capitalism. The coal ash problem has been building for 5-6 decades. Therefore, McCrory is responsible for the problem. Never let solving a problem get in the way of making political hay out of a crisis. Stuff like this is one of the reason I took a strong dislke of environmentalists.