There are legitimate concerns about pollution from the burning of coal, and no one need apologize for insisting on reasonable pollution controls on coal mining or any industry.
But the recent experience of a coal mine owner in Walker County, Ala., northwest of Birmingham, showed that environmental activism can have painful consequences when it is not balanced against practical economic considerations.
The owner, Ronnie Bryant, attended a public hearing at which coal-mining operations were blasted by one speaker after another.
Bryant had obtained a permit for his mine, and it would have been subject to environmental scrutiny. But he became so disgusted by the ceaseless attacks on mining that he finally threw in the towel.
Here is what he said when he stepped up to the microphone at the hearing:
"Nearly every day without fail ... men stream to these operations looking for work in Walker County. They can't pay their mortgage. They can't pay their car note. They can't feed their families. They don't have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just ... what's the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They'd be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What's the use? I see these guys -- I see them with tears in their eyes -- looking for work. And if there's so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there's no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So ... basically what I've decided is not to open the mine. I'm just quitting. Thank you."
The point is not that coal is ideal. But activists who blast traditional energy sources such as coal have not shown that their preferred alternatives -- windmills and solar panels -- are workable or affordable. While they point out the negatives of coal, they do not mention the grave consequences that would result if our nation were unable to meet its energy needs.
What's more, we can't afford in the current economic crisis to put up undue roadblocks to major economic development.
The quest for cleaner energy is appropriate. But it is not appropriate when those efforts are impractical and unrealistic.