Tough limits on coal bad for consumers

The president, Congress and the EPA are legislating strict regulations on the coal and electric power industries. That forces many coal mines to close and in turn forces electric generating companies to find new ways to produce energy. The health claim is mercury contamination.

As a child you may have played with mercury or even held it in your hand like I did. It was in a glass container inside your furnace thermostat. That metallic blob was cool. If we as kids played with it, how dangerous is it really?

G.E. and the president urge the use of the CFL light bulbs, but they contain mercury. Your house could be contaminated should one break, which would endanger your family. Check out the procedure for cleanup should one break. Aren’t we the country that invented the incandescent bulb? Now we’re banning it from production?

Closure of the generating plants is beginning to occur before there is a new reliable energy source in place. Wind energy needs acres of wind-generating farms and a way to connect them to our homes. Solar power is another energy substitute, but its panels contain many unhealthy chemicals to synthesize the sun’s light into electricity. Don’t forget the batteries, full of acid, needed to store that energy for night time use.

Green energy will not cure our problems. The new technology is expensive, and most people aren’t interested. Spain already is dropping wind and solar energy. To gain the public interest and support, the president, Congress and the EPA must make the carbon-based energy so expensive that the green technology looks more promising, and that’s where we are now. Keep an eye on your energy bills.

Wayne Oras Sr.

Schaumburg