Comment Re:Time for a serious effort on renewables (Score 1) 964
Only if there is no scrubber at the power plant. Modern coal power plants are quite clean.
Clean coal is a myth. That radioactive (and mercury, lead, arsenic, thallium and other toxic material containing) fly ash the scrubbers capture still has to go somewhere, and scrubbers are not 100% efficient. What happens with the waste? It sits outside in large piles, until their containment pond fails and wipes out the nearest town and seriously pollutes the nearby water source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
At least nuclear plants keep their spent fuel waste inside and rarely have accidents (Note this is the Largest ash spill, there have been many others), especially caused by something as rare as rain and cold temps. This also does not take into account accidents, health complications, or environmental impact related to mining the stuff.
-Tm