Texas' Energy Crisis- Is Coal the answer?

Energy is a HUGE industry in Texas. We have established this state on the back of oil companies, we are the number one producer of alternative energy in the U.S. but there is no doubt that petroleum is king. Petroleum companies are extremely powerful in both Texas and the U.S. We subsidize them tremendously giving consumers a false perception of the true price of oil. On top of that price, some would add the price of the Iraq war, due to its oil ties, bringing the true price of a barrel of oil to much higher than currently given.

With most of the oil our nation currently uses coming from the middle east, with Texas' oil reserves dwindling, and the with current forecasts concerning global warming, Texas' economy especially is in jeopardy. In this atmosphere Texas needs a new approach.

Regardless of our addiction, by the oil companies' own predictions, oil will run out in 40-60 years. We need to wean ourselves of petroleum now! Wind and solar are making huge advances in Texas, but wind and solar only produce electricity. They don't provide a solution to the transportation issue unless we make readilly available an electric car.

Texas' response to this issue is let's go back to using coal! There are over 11 new coal plants in the works right now that due to a pay out to Governor Perry are on the fast track to being built. Coal also does nothing to solve the problem of transportation and will only provide the energy for electricity. Coal is a product of petroleum and is a non renewable resource that can only sustain us for slightly longer than oil, and then there is the pollution issue. Coal is notoriously dirty. China uses coal as a major source of power and has just surpassed the U.S. in CO2 emissions. The effects of China's air pollution can be detected all the way in California! Coal is dangerous to mine (who will be doing this job?) and environmentally hazardous in the process. There is a coal fire burning in Centralia, Pennsylvania that will continue to burn for at least another 200 years in the place of what used to be a mining town.

I don't understand why Texas will not take this opportunity to be the leader in alternative energy. We will eventually be forced to use something other than petroleum to feed our energy loving society why not put Texas at the forefront of that effort? The main response of the oil companies when asked about alternative energy is that it will be economically damaging because they will be out of a job, well yes they will be out of a job in the oil business but there will be other jobs created in the alternative energy sector. I'm sure that candle makers were very upset with the advent of the light bulb but that is a free market society for you.... or that would be a free market society if the oil companies weren't paid by the government and given a stake in government regulation meant to protect the masses not a source of fuel and an industry built around that fuel.

Texas should just say no to coal! Why trade one bad energy source for another?