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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Denying Climate Change “Like Ignoring Cancer” for WV

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Thursday, June 27, 2013   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - With climate change regulations coming, the state needs to face reality, according to a former West Virginia college president and power company CEO. Coal industry supporters and their allies in office are harshly attacking White House plans to limit carbon pollution, calling it part of a "war on coal." However, Charles Bayless, retired president of WVU Tech and former CEO of two power companies, said that is wasting precious time.

Climate change is real and serious, he said, and the rules have to happen, and the state needs to adapt.

"If you're a West Virginian and a coal company and you're denying climate change, it's sort of like denying you've got cancer and hoping it will get better. It won't. And the longer you deny it, the worse the fall will be," Bayless said.

Coal will still be used to generate electricity, Bayless predicted, but only with new technology to slash the amount of carbon pollution. He said the best way to help get that technology in place would be to put a price on carbon, through a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade program. He did allow that coal has some important advantages.

"If you're running a solar plant and a cloud comes over, we're got to have back-up for that. Coal gasification or coal with carbon capture and storage, in the end, will prove to be economical," he said.

The planet already is experiencing dangerous patterns in its climate and can expect more hurricanes and extended droughts, he said, advising state leaders to plan what to do when they cannot stop the new rules. An electrical engineer by training, Bayless said the science on climate change is "very simple:" The greenhouse effect means the atmosphere is holding a huge amount of extra heat.

"The extra heat is equal to about 13 Hiroshima-size bombs every second. You obviously can't put that much energy into any kind of a system and not have something change," he explained.

Under the regulations being developed, new power plants would be able to put out only about half the carbon dioxide of a typical coal plant. The Obama administration is also developing similar rules that would apply to existing generating stations.

Lectures on climate change by Bayless are available on the Youtube channel of ASU Lightworks, http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYBOZyJvOkiJyOPNOxhpTkA.




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