President Biden laid out his long-awaited rules for fossil-fuel power plants this past week. And, for Mother Nature, they weren't too nice.
Yes, he did say the industry must cut its emissions by 90 percent. That's a whopping lot, right? Who can complain that Biden isn't doing enough when he's saying reduce your emissions by 90 percent or get out of my house?
Ninety percent is 90 percent. You can spell it out or use numbers; either way its a whopping lot.
But, I'm not sure Mother Nature sees it that way. She looks down from her spot in the mountains and sees all the smokestacks billowing and belching their carbon at her. Then she sees a copy of Biden's plan. She picks it up and reads it, and a tear swells up in her eye. No fossil-fuel plant will have to start moving its feet until 2030. And, the large natural gas plants until 2035 or 2038 to clean up their act. That means they don't have to install the equipment until a dozen years from now. And, the smaller fossil-fuel plants are going to be let off the hook completely.
Nothing like taking swift, decisive action, Mr. President.
Mother Nature's tears are rolling down the mountain, but she keeps reading, learning that Biden wants to toss extreme amounts of money at something called "carbon capture." That's when you capture all those billowing fumes from the power plant and pump them deep into the earth instead of letting them free into the sky.
Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? "Precisely," says one executive. "Brilliant!," adds another from the opposite side of the room. Mother Nature wasn't invited to the meeting. She never did fit well into executive suites. So, we don't hear from her.
But, somewhere up in the mountains, she's muttering under her breath. Her whispering voice questions whether this "carbon capture" even works. She notes that in the days after President Biden released his plans, some of the fossil-fuel barons cried foul on President Biden, complaining that technology just has not yet advanced far enough that they will be able to cut their emissions by 90 percent.
But, Biden shoots back at them: "We'll give you the money. We've got this thing called 'subsidies,' you know, and I can't think of anyone more deserving that you. We'll help you with the carbon capture by taking the taxpayers money and using it to build these carbon-capture plants. Deal?"
Even as the president speaks, he perhaps knows of a proud developer of carbon capture in La Porte, Texas. That would be the NET Power Test Facility. It's been testing and testing for years. Now it appears up and read to pounce on Biden's money. A couple weeks ago, the La Porte plant even brought in one of the more influential Congress members, John Curtis (R-Utah), to show him how just how wonderful their now up-and-running plant is. They are successfully removing carbon and piping it away where it can be pumped underground.
Don't the fracking-is-bad folk love that? And, Mother Nature is standing right beside them.
The problem with carbon capture, is that it takes a lot of energy to make it work -- a lot. In fact, it can take the equivalent of another factory just to draw the smoke and fumes away. Okay, the La Porte facility might be more efficient. We don't know. Perhaps they've advanced this "carbon capture" technology to where the expense and energy required isn't so great.
But, here's betting it will take a federal grant to make it work. And, Mother Nature is sitting up in the mountains, wondering why we don't just turn to renewable sources, green sources, sources that can help our planet stop coughing.
Yes, and speaking of coughing, Mother Nature is coughing at President Biden's plan. And, she's going to choke if somebody doesn't help her.
(Index -- Climate change info)
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