It is somewhat scary that even US elections seem to conspire against people taking any meaningful action to curb carbon dioxide emissions (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8c0d3370-689c-11e4-af00-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3IewvCovn). The giant Peabody Powder River Basin mine in Wyoming is now reportedly the world's largest coal mine and coal is said to account for 40% of US electricity generation. There are reportedly billions of tons of coal available for strip mining in this area. Although the technology exists, there also appear to be remarkably few coal-fired power stations with carbon capture in that country. Apparently, economic commentators feel that the recent Republican electoral success marks the end of any meaningful action by Obama to limit carbon emissions as a consequence of coal, gas and oil extraction. It is interesting that spokesmen for Peabody do not, apparently, deny that climate change is happening: they just deny that it has anything to do with human-generated carbon dioxide release. They seem to feel that environmental concerns damage the economy. Ho-hum.
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