More than anything else, coal fuelled the Industrial Revolution. It was, and still is, plentiful and cheap. It’s also always been relatively easy to get at, especially if you don’t mind sending kids into mines, endangering the lives of miners, or blasting the tops off mountains.

Coal is an 18th-century fuel source, but we’re still relying on it for much of our energy needs in the 21st century. Because it’s so abundant and inexpensive, there’s been little incentive to switch to cleaner but often more expensive sources.

Drummond drops the ball

A message from the Ontario Clean Air Alliance:

Don Drummond's recently released report is all about pursuing efficiencies in public services. Can't argue with that. But while Mr. Drummond does make a number of good electricity sector recommendations (e.g., eliminate the very wasteful 10 per cent electricity rebate, lower the feed-in-tariff prices for solar energy and consolidate Ontario's municipally-owned distribution utilities) he misses the two biggest and easiest opportunities to lower our electricity bills and save taxpayers billions:

The Beehive Collective presents: The True Cost of Coal

Join the Beehive Design Collective for interactive storytelling!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Toronto Women's Bookstore
73 Harbord Street -- just West of Spadina on the South side of Harbord Street

Our climate justice framework for B.C. is to eliminate fossil fuels by 2040. In the household sector, this poses a significant challenge, not so much in terms of technology and knowledge, but because natural gas is much cheaper than electricity per unit of energy. Even though B.C. has among the lowest prices in North America, and for relatively clean electricity at that, pricing undermines incentives to shift away from fossil fuels.

Right now on British Columbia's Vancouver Island, an important battle is underway in the war against climate change. On one side, a proposed mine to extract and export dirty coal. A growing army of local residents and environmentally-conscious citizens are lined-up against the mine.

Coal has been long known as a dirty fossil fuel: both in terms of the serious human health impacts of burning and mining and because of its significant contribution to global climate change. Burning coal for electricity produces more climate-changing pollution than burning the equivalent amount of oil or natural gas.