On 9/20/11 11:43 , Joe from Kokomo wrote:
On 9/20/2011 9:51 AM, dave wrote:

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more
efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot
steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a
month.

Certainly they are building one power plant a month.

As manufacturers to the world, they -need- all that electricity. Too bad
we make very little in this country any more -- and too bad the greed of
wanting cheap products drove most of our manufacturing to China.

Oh, sorry, I almost forgot. We need those cheap products because no one
here has a decent paying job any more and therefore can only afford
"cheap".


Cheap products are not a bad thing in and of themselves. Remember that
Japanese products were also cheap.

Not so much any more. Industrializing a nation requires certain steps.
Cheap manufactured goods is only an early step.

But there are a lot better ways to generate power than coal.
Geothermal, being among the cleanest. Even thorium nuclear is a better
option. Clean, plentiful, scalable pursuant to demand, self regulating
reaction, and apolitical, in that it can't be used to create weapons.

Something we should have long begun here.