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OPINIONS
Julia Bonds: There's no such thing as clean coal
Your editorial on coal ever being clean is real hogwash. We who live in the coal-producing communities find that insulting.
Even if we could get rose petals to come out of the smokestacks, that coal still has our blood on it.
As long as mountains and communities are blasted and our water and air are poisoned to mine the coal, then it is still filthy. You can't just talk about coal power plants without talking about the high price of coal extraction.
Since coal is finite and will soon be gone, wouldn't it be the smart and less expensive move to transition to renewable energy like wind and solar now, before we destroy the planet? Think of the jobs that we could generate. Wind and solar are almost as cheap as coal now, and even if the new coal plant fantasy becomes reality, our coal power will be more expensive.
It's time to stop using stuff that poisons us and that makes a mess for our children to clean up. We told our children to clean up their rooms, but look at the toxic mess we are leaving them. Shame on us. Water is more important than coal.
Julia Bonds is a resident of Rock Creek, W.Va.
