Another well thought-out topic and subsequent posts. You are "dead-on" with your observations.

There is one alternative to coal for our electric power plants. It's called coke, petcoke, petroleum coke, etc. Its the ONLY thing left unused from a barrel of crude oil after we refine it. We sell it by the millions of metric tons for shipment to Europe. The good news is that the EPA is now allowing it to be burned in a few locations stateside (one power plant in Florida that I know of for sure). There are even plans in the not-so-distant future to build a new electric plant at our refinery to burn some of it on-site. We are currently The Southern Company's largest retail customer. Building the new plant (in conjunction w/ TSC) would allow us to power the refinery (ChevronTexaco's largest, BTW) and create enough excess electricity to sell it back to "the grid".

FMXhellraiser's response is precisely what's wrong with this country today. We want it all, and we want it NOW! Don't bore me with the details.....