Environmental reporter Randy Lee Loftis’ piece in Sunday’s Morning News carried a worrisome headline, “Texas cool to confront global warming: State, already first in greenhouse gases, may add 16 coal-fired plants.” I support Randy’s concern, but the story quickly degenerated into a “he says/she says,” with this paragraph indicative of the whole:
Environmentalists are pressing power companies to consider newer coal-burning technologies that would reduce or capture carbon dioxide emissions. The electric companies say the new methods aren’t proven.
That’s easy enough to check out, and I’m surprised Randy didn’t. Here’s what he may have found. It’s not enough for the critics to say what ought to be done. Everybody wants the same thing: cleaner air. What the critics are obligated to do is tell us how to get there–and have enough power to handle our region’s growth at the same time. Meanwhile, I’m all for the fuss being raised because it raises public awareness of just how bad our air has become. But it does raise the suspicion that the fuss-makers, Laura Miller among them, are more interested in their own self-rightousness than in helping to solve the problem.
