Antiquated Energy Powers the Modern Age

   Driving home from work in downtown Denver this afternoon I got caught in a little bit of traffic around Pepsi Center. Stopped at a light, I looked down from the bridge I was parked on and saw something that jarred me fiercely.

   Stopped on the railroad tracks below me was an engine pulling car after car, each filled to the brim with coal.

   I read several months back a fact that haunts me daily. Something like 80% of Colorado's electricity is generated by coal-fired plants!

   Growing up I was taught to always turn off lights when you left a room, and do what you can beyond that to conserve energy. Still, this little factoid has turned me into a real stickler around home.

   If I come home to find a light that was accidentally left on for hours and hours, I swear that the next time I go outside the air seems a little smoky!

   Back on the bridge over the tracks - I flashed back to the rundown factories that were a blight to the city prior to LoDo's rebirth, lining tracks holding the same coal cars on their way to one of the power plants.

   Here we are in 2008 and the best we can do is mine away non-renewable, dirty energy from the earth. Certainly the time to push HARD for better ways to generate electricity is here. Why isn't anyone talking about next generation nuclear?!