Used properly, coal results in jobs, heat

Coal trains, eh? Local “waterkeeper Shannon Williamson” and company obviously never had a chemistry course. Coal, carbon (from the Latin) ubiquitous in nature; inert, “very low toxicity” (means EPA isn’t the least bit concerned); atomic number 6, atomic weight 12, melting point, 3,500 degrees Celsius, boiling point 4,827. Inert. Doesn’t go into solution in water.

If a train car dumps a load, so what? It doesn’t smell. We go out and pick up as much as we can use as fuel in our stoves. This heated houses, etc. until oil and natural gas became cheaper and we didn’t need to shovel it into the furnace and take out the “clinkers” later. The coal company would come with a load and funnel it through the cast iron door/opening in the foundation and no one was ever hurt (except if they were stupid enough to stand in the coal bin.)

You could draw hopscotch patterns on cement with it. Coded messages. It doesn’t dissolve into solution in water (but diesel and biofuel will dissolve it). Inert. Dump it into Lake Pend Oreille, no big deal. It cam out of the ground after thousands of years, it’d just go back.

Coal (carbon) as activated charcoal (a bit more processed than your barbecue charcoal) is medicinal, used to treat poisons, lower cholesterol, prevent hangovers, pregnancy bile problems and, best of all, reduce intestinal gas (no, I won’t use the vernacular.)

Used properly, it creates jobs and makes heat. What’s not to like? Long live the inert.

P.S. Go stand next to a coal train, you won’t see any coal dust.

PETER HERAPER

Sandpoint