The Blindness That Requires Perfection

I was poking around a Google News search for the word "coal" and noticed this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about a proposal for an IGCC powerplant in eastern Washington State:

Energy Northwest says the technology is economically competitive with other sources and has added environmental benefits in that carbon dioxide can be separated for eventual disposal without releasing it to the atmosphere.

But the technology and Energy Northwest's proposal are likely to meet at least skepticism from groups such as NW Energy Coalition, an environmental and conservation group.

Coalition spokesman Marc Krasnowsky said the technology might be appropriate for replacing "dirty coal" plants in the Midwest and Northeast, but "we really don't see any need for it in the Northwest," given the availability of renewable resources such as wind and the potential for reduced demand through energy efficiency and conservation measures.

If there were ever a way to make sure that the environmentalist movement were cancelled out -- vaporized, removed from the table at any serious political consideration -- here it is. There's never any "better", always their "best" and only utopian answer. Given the constant braying against wind, nuclear, and just about everything except solar, one wonders just how much longer they'll have any credibility at all.