Fiddling. Rome. Climate Change Edition.
While the White House and Congress are spending their time arguing over whose plan to put people out of work is the best, efforts to address critical problems have stalled.
Anyone remember climate change? Thought for sure there would significant action during Obama's first term. Thought wrong.
From the NYTimes:
American Electric Power has decided to table plans to build a full-scale carbon-capture plant at Mountaineer, a 31-year-old coal-fired plant in West Virginia, where the company has successfully captured and buried carbon dioxide in a small pilot program for two years.
The technology had been heralded as the quickest solution to help the coal industry weather tougher federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions. But Congressional inaction on climate change diminished the incentives that had spurred A.E.P. to take the leap.
. . .
The federal Department of Energy had pledged to cover half the cost, but A.E.P. said it was unwilling to spend the remainder in a political climate that had changed strikingly since it began the project.
