Of all the environmental tirades that my friends and family must routinely endure, they probably know the one about coal by heart: "Where is the [censored] logic in sending hard working, salt-of-the-earth, blue-collar Americans down into unstable holes in the ground, where the air is so bad it guarantees a shorter life, to dig up this rock that releases gasses--gasses proven to warm our planet, causing extreme and unpredictable weather, melting icecaps and raising sea levels--when burned (at a pretty damn low efficiency, mind you), as meanwhile the wind continues to steadily blow, largely unh
So after much debate, some watering down, and a lively vote that dragged well into a Saturday night, the House has passed a wide-ranging energy bill with some pretty big environmental implications. The bill, which has been a priority of Speaker Pelosi's in her first year leading House Dems, most significantly will require utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind, a provision dubbed the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). "It's a big, big deal," boasted Rep.
