If you read the local news, you know that Duke Energy is evil. It’s not like they could just pull out and let everybody, including the frail elderly on fixed incomes, buy solar panels and start pedaling. First they polluted the air with water vapor, the next thing you know, they have byproducts from burning coal, and no byproduct is going to be beneficial. Yes, they had a bad leak, but accidents happen, and Duke was charged with more harm than was possible, as I recall. Then stories multiplied about coal ash leaks. I only know of one, for which they took full responsibility. After that, it was discovered that substations were mutating people like you wouldn’t believe, and Evil Duke announced plans to put a substation right next to a school, where it would fry all the little green earth muffins. Today, we learn coal ash is leaking into drinking water all over Asheville. State tests show it is possible, and there is a map in the newspaper with the coal ash pond, the interstate, and the French Broad River clearly labeled, and as we all know, anytime there’s a map, there’s a leak, no? If I believe the press, we’re all already dead seven times over.
We all like clean energy, but we also like incremental change. Borrowing from Carl Milsted, nobody likes the IRS, but candidates who want to abolish it their first day of office are dismissed as cranks. Paying unemployment for all the IRS employees, and all the accountants who exist to serve the IRS, would be far worse for the country’s economy – perhaps. In a similar vein, making everybody go solar tomorrow would cause almost all factories to shut down, traffic would soon stop except for cars with access to solar-operated gas pumps, people on life support in hospitals would have to expire, and a whole lot of other ugly stuff would happen while silicon factories ramped up to meet demand.
Many here, however, would, rather than thanking Duke for all the conveniences it makes possible, argue the planet must be saved, whatever the cost.
