As a dual citizen of Canada, an engineer whose entire career has been focused upon eliminating air pollution and addressing the Anthropogenic Climate Change Crisis, I have lived with an asthma condition ever since moving to West Virginia.
While living and working in Southern California with SCAQMD and the California Air Resources Board, we regularly achieved zero emissions.
I live just a few blocks from the railroad tracks in Kanawha City and often see clouds of black dust as the uncovered coal trains fly through town. Thats not right. Those railroad cars can be and should be covered. But here the air quality agencies seem to be more interested in protecting the profits of the coal industry than the health of the citizens.
Solar energy is now a fraction of the cost of coal fired power. The regulatory agencies should be pressing the public utilities to accelerate the transition to renewables so rates can be lowered. Example: The largest public utility in the United States, the Los Angeles Department of water and power, signed a 20 year contract last year for 20 years in a fixed price contract for energy from solar energy at $0.03/kWh! AEP’s John Amos here in Kanawha county cost $0.14/kWh. Why are we tolerating the difference?
