Everybody go green!

GE Ecomagination

Ge has brought lots of "good things to light," so am I surprised they are trumpeting themselves as the green-friendly inventor of industrial machines that run on hydrocarbons? Their new hybrid diesel electric train, for example, looks to be about 5% to 10% more environmentally friendly than its predecessor. However, GE is still promoting coal as an energy source! I find it promising that they do seem to have an awareness that increased use of coal is a stop-gap measure until solar and wind are competitive.

Finally (yay!), we've expanded the set of cost variables when we compare, for example, a coal-fired plant with a solar plant. The true costs of cleaning up after ourselves when we burn coal are not as hidden from view as they once were. When we assign a value to clean air, public health, the ability for future generations to sustain themselves and similar factors, it's amazing how different the answer to the question "How will we support ourselves?" becomes.