And Still Canada Waits

Numerous times we have said that within the United States and Canada there exists enough potential hydropower to completely eliminate the need for either country to burn coal – for any purpose!

How long, one wonders, can the major coal, oil and gas powers manage to conceal the truths of their missogeny that so severely threatens the future health of all the people of the earth? You may have read our articles entitled “The Politics of Energy and the Energy of Politics” The two are inseparably entwined, a marriage of convenience whose offspring have been illness and death.

A little dramatic? In answer to that we recommend readers refer to a paper by the Union of Concerned Scientists entitled “Clean Energy – The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels.”

We will dwell more on that document later. Suffice it to say that hydropower contains no hidden dangers, no surprises, no harmful wastes, no environmental impact other than the guarantee of clean air and water – and perhaps survival of all the species.

Canada waits, as does the United States, for the full development of its hydro potential. The facts are that in Canada there awaits a total technical potential of 200,000 Megawatts (MW) of power while in the United States there awaits the sum of 150,000 MW.

These amounts are in addition to the existing hydropower capacity of 150,000 MW.

The total of all these categories represents the closing of all the coal mines in both countries and thereby the elimination of what has been proven to be the “filthiest fossil fuel, mostly carbon that when burned releases smoke pollution and more than its own weight of CO2 into the air.”
If the funds required to “clean up coal” (see our article “Clean Coal-Oxymoron”) were used instead to develop the available hydropower the result would be cleaner air and earth in half the time the coal “proponents” say it would take to bury their carcinogens.

So what Canada – and the United States – still awaits is the determination of the “powers that be” to do the right thing – and the investment in time and capital to get the job done.

Economists report that due to the present financial insecurities there are literally trillions of dollars (and other world currencies) being held back waiting for use when “things settle down.”
In our opinion, things will “settle down” when dedicated people make those powers that be respond to the serious worldwide demand for what we must call Energy Sanity.