The Dumb Way To (Ab)use Coal

When you're being stupid, there is only more and less stupid -- that is, it's a matter of degree.

AKRON, Ohio - FirstEnergy will close six older coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by September 1 due to environmental regulations. Bay Shore Plant, Units 2-4, in Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Plant; Ashtabula Plant; Lake Shore Plant, Cleveland; Armstrong Power Station, Pennsylvania; and R. Paul Smith Power Station, Maryland are the six plants that will be retired.

529 employees will lose their jobs, and in addition there will be further tax losses occasioned by the shuttering as well, along with all the pass-through economic activity (everything from lubricants to cleaning supplies to the paper for the copiers) that disappears as well. Why? Because we're stuck on stupid. We have an intelligent way to use coal for energy production.  We can use it to power our cars and make electricity at the same time. But not how we use coal today. Instead, we should be using nuclear energy from thorium for our electrical generation in liquid salt technology reactors.  These run at a convenient temperature to provide process heat to convert coal to liquids. And the best part of it is that coal contains thorium itself, so we get multiple benefits:

• No more oil imports.
• A many-hundred year (500+) fuel base off known proved reserves (of coal) for.....

Read the full analysis at Market Ticker here.