Burn, baby, burn

The Citizens Action Coalition is one of those groups that can always find lots of reasons to be against modern society and the energy it takes to fuel it; if it had been around at the end of the 19th century, it would have have been pushing buggy whips as the environmentally friendly wave of the future. Sometimes, its members talk about the immediate ecological dangers of various sources of energy (except the pie-in-the-sky stuff like windmills and solar-energy capture), sometimes they focus on the long-term contributions to global warming. They also rail against the enrichment of the fat cats and the screwing of ordinary people. For the gassification process, which could make Indiana the Saudi Arabia of coal, CAC touches all those bases and throws in "and it ain't as cheap as you think it would be":

Indiana's challenge is to break with 19th-century traditions and embrace cheaper, cleaner energy technologies. The challenge is great, since utility and coal industry influence public policy and regulatory proceedings. However, as the debates over the ill-fated Commerce Connector (bypass) around Indianapolis and property taxes show, elected officials respond when the public demands. It's time to stand up against excessive utility bills and dirty air and for reasonable utility rates, job growth, and cleaner air. A clean energy plan can accomplish these goals; a new coal plant cannot.

Oh, yes, that darn bypass. No need for buggy whips there. The Citizens Action Coalition will be happy when we're all burning candles in caves and our "job growth" is to become better hunters and gatherers, as long as it doesn't harm the environment.