Coal is facing not only the opposition of the environmental types, but also the availability of cheap and abundant natural gas. It's a double whammy but if we can get back to a rational approach, there can be a resurgence in mining and related jobs (such as transportation) and still maintain good air quality. Today's scrubbers and related equipment on coal plants are many times more efficient in reducing emissions than we used to be.
Anybody who has seem pictures of early 1900's steel mills and coke ovens with smoke blotting out the sun will admit - if they are rational - that our environment is many times cleaner than it used to be. Homes, schools and industries no longer heat with coal. Skies are blue instead of black. Far from a crisis, we are well on the road of helping the environment. Railroads are a big part of that, hauling freight much farther on a gallon of fuel than trucks do.
As for the quiet zone - trying to stay on topic here - NIMBY idiots are everywhere, not just near the rails. Some friends and i were talking and one mentioned an airport which was built way out in the boonies near a city. Over time, development crept in and gradually people were bellyaching about the airplane noise. So they built another airport even farther away, and now development is following and soon THAT will come under protest. It's time somebody had the ____s to tell these morons "That's the way it is. Be upset all you want, be offended all you want, but suck it up and deal with it - or else move someplace else if you think that's better!" If it was up to me there would be no such things as quiet zones.
Anybody who has seem pictures of early 1900's steel mills and coke ovens with smoke blotting out the sun will admit - if they are rational - that our environment is many times cleaner than it used to be. Homes, schools and industries no longer heat with coal. Skies are blue instead of black. Far from a crisis, we are well on the road of helping the environment. Railroads are a big part of that, hauling freight much farther on a gallon of fuel than trucks do.
As for the quiet zone - trying to stay on topic here - NIMBY idiots are everywhere, not just near the rails. Some friends and i were talking and one mentioned an airport which was built way out in the boonies near a city. Over time, development crept in and gradually people were bellyaching about the airplane noise. So they built another airport even farther away, and now development is following and soon THAT will come under protest. It's time somebody had the ____s to tell these morons "That's the way it is. Be upset all you want, be offended all you want, but suck it up and deal with it - or else move someplace else if you think that's better!" If it was up to me there would be no such things as quiet zones.
