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> Did you know that coal plants, which still make up the majority of U.S. energy production, are only about twice as efficient today than they were a century ag
by jfoutz 12y ago
> Did you know that coal plants, which still make up the majority of U.S. energy production, are only about twice as efficient today than they were a century ago?
Wasn't most of the effort put into making them MUCH MUCH cleaner? I mean, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River doesn't catch on fire anymore, and the amount of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain seems pretty tolerable compared to the early 80's
- revelation 12y agoIf you can make a coal plant twice as efficient, you can generate X amount of electricity for half the cost. Adding filters meanwhile just adds cost. I think both of these things happened, but only one of them is in the interest of a market actor.
- trhway 12y ago>but only one of them is in the interest of a market actor. it is only until that market actor is allowed to externalize the costs of his pollution
- Cthulhu_ 12y agoGiven how there's a huge trade going on in CO2 emission rights (at least in Europe), that's already a thing. Less CO2 emissions (catching them, filtering, etc) means they can sell off their CO2 emission rights to other companies. (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_emission_trading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_emission_trading )