Coal - the first step in energy independence

A coworker brought up an interesting point. Oil is valued in US dollars. As the dollar continues to decrease in value, oil becomes cheaper for other countries. This increases the demand worldwide and increases the price for the US. Specifically, the Canadian dollar has increased in value 26% against the US dollar since the beginning of the year. That means more and more US dollars are needed to purchase a barrel of oil. The same would be true for natural gas, a source of energy that is increasing in favor in the US.

Burning coal is a major source of pollution, yes, however, coal is cheap and plentiful within the United States. A major part of any energy policy should be the continued work toward energy independence. This, as shown above, would be good for the economy, as well as international relations.

That's a long introduction to what I found in the Houston Chronicle on Friday. Thad Hill, president of NRG Texas had this to say,

"Coal is our most abundant energy resource, and there's no way for the U.S. to get anywhere near energy independence without finding an acceptable way to use coal."

That's an expected statement from a company that operates a coal power plant, but it makes it no less true. Coal is a national resource and we should be looking for ways to use coal in a cleaner manner. Check out how NRG is working toward that in Friday's Chronicle article.