Coal at the Grassroots

By Professor Jim Kotcon

Unfortunately, enviros in West Virginia are doing relatively little on the global warming issue. Just a few facts may bear repeating. The new air quality regulations will benefit the health of everyone in West Virginia, not just asthmatics. The Kyoto Protocol is a first step in addressing the long term threat of global warming. No one is claiming it is the final solution. But if the leading developed nations of the world (the ones that created the problem) are unwilling to take even a first step, it is unfair and unrealistic to expect the undeveloped countries (that did not cause the problem) to assume the burden. The debate among scientists over whether global warming exists is effectively over, with the only real discussion being how soon and how much warming will occur.

The larger public policy debate is still going on as large fossil fuel-dependent corporations spend millions of dollars trotting out hired guns who continually snipe and throw out seemingly convincing, but isolated and misleading data. There efforts are not oriented toward better scientific understanding or improved public policy, but simply at protecting their bottom line. This is not necessarily illegal, but it is selfish and immoral. They have been quite successful, particularly with the Republican Congress, but also with Democrats who focus more on jobs (especially their own) than on the long term future of the planet. There is a natural synergy between clean air regulations and global warming. In fact, studies have shown that the Kyoto restrictions would save tens of thousands of lives immediately, not be preventing global warming, but by preventing the more toxic ozone, particulates, and sulfur dioxide pollution. This is an often ignored aspect of environmental protection, efforts at cleaning up one area also provide benefits in many other areas.

Its corollary is that pollution in one area causes adverse effects in many other areas. This is one reason why economic analyses are so difficult, because the costs for pollution control are easily measured in one industry, but the benefits are scattered throughout society.

So implementing clean air regs through the global warming treaty, or vice versa, are simply two common sense approaches to the same goal, a healthy, sustainable ecosystem. It is actually a principle of good management to focus on solutions that solve several problems simultaneously. _