14 DAY TRIAL // This year's National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas stands to actually bring forth some palpable changes as far as the energy industry in the US is concerned, as some of the people attending it seem determined to push for cutting down on the country's dependence on coal.
To cut a long story short, Senate majority leader Harry Reid made some very interesting remarks concerning coal plants and argued that the time has come to put this energy source behind us.
His main concern was the Reid Gardner Generating Station built just outside Moapa (i.e. very close to Las Vegas), and owned by NV Energy.
Apparently, the people living close to this coal plant have developed serious health conditions over the years, most likely as a result of the air pollution resulting from the process of turning coal into energy.
These facts can be argued to contradict what NV Energy representatives keep saying with respect to the ways in which the company and its generating station are carrying on with their activities.
Thus, VegasInc reports that Jennifer Schuricht, a spokeswoman for NV Energy, recently made a case of how the company it represents not only does things, “in the best interests of our customers, in compliance with all federal and state laws, and in an environmentally responsible manner,” but also recently purchased and installed technology which allows it to bring harmful emissions down to a minimum.
On the other hand, as the same source informs as, high official Harry Reid maintains that, “There is no clean coal. There’s 'cleaner' coal, but there is no clean coal.” Furthermore, he classified the Reid Gardner Generating Station as a “dirty relic.”
Truth be told, although a bit harsh, this phrase can indeed be used to describe not just said coal plant, but also the coal industry in general.
From where we stand, it is indeed necessary that coal energy is gradually put behind us in favor of renewable power sources, both for the benefit of the environment and for the sake of public health.