I was asking myself today, is clean air or cheap coal power more important to most people? In suburban New York where I grew up, people were recycling and environmentally concerned even back in the early 1980's. Although there are no coal-fired power plants in suburban New York that I am aware of, people there would probably gladly pay more for and prefer cleaner, renewable energy. Meanwhile, here in southern Indiana, many people would rather deal with the coal pollution than focus on renewable sources. When I first moved to Indiana, I thought it was so ironic that people would rather have cheap energy and look at smokestacks (which are in view from even some very beautiful communities around here), than push their utilties to use renewable energy and clean up the air. Is there really an irony here??

Is it just that people from this area are used to seeing coal plants and don't think much of it anymore? Is it that truly clean air has not been a priority around here because people often equate polluting industries with good jobs and low unemployment? Does it just seem too difficult and expensive to convert a community tradition of coal power to a new one of renewable energy? When I noticed my first smokestack around here, I was a little freaked out. Then I realized just how many coal-fired power plants are around here. It seems to me that many in our area fear that speaking out for clean air will mean the end of economic stability in our region. They may feel that they do not have the luxury of demanding clean air over cheap coal power, because our community is so tightly wound around the coal industry. Meanwhile, they may believe that those in areas not at all dependent on the coal industry can speak against it all they want, because their economies are completely independent of coal power. After pondering this a little, I realized that it was not all that ironic that people in southern Indiana and other places where the coal industry is big, would support coal power over clean air. After all, a smokestack to many means people are working to mine coal, truck coal in, burn coal, etc. One company in town burns 19 truckloads of coal per hour to run its aluminum industry. Although I was kind of taken aback by that number, many probably read that and equated it with economic prosperity. How do we change this kind of mind-set?