Who's really damaging the environment? Maybe the....environmentalists?

As of recent, it has come to light the damage that foreign pollution, notably the lions share originating in China, is doing to the United States and Americans should realize that we share the blame. With China increasing it's industrial output, that country has been constructing coal fired powerplants to supply their factories with electricity, and ironically, importing coal from the United States. We have a President and EPA, who should be working with business, openly hostile to any power generation that utilizes coal, hence we see manufacturing in the United States relocating overseas, where we lose the very ability to monitor and exercise emissions controls that we have over our own power generation facilities and additionally watch good vanish. The utilities providing our power come under some of the most stringent pollution standards in the world, and in fact an article previously in the StarTribune states that since the 1980's that the total amount of mercury emissions has declined by 20 percent because of new regulations and technologies.

China, who's environmental record is nothing short of a laughingstock, makes overtures that they will ensure their industry becomes more efficient and environmentally sound. While this may be music to an environmentalists ears, the Chinese are looking at billions of dollars in retrofit costs alone to their existing facilities. Adding to that, China is under no obligation to abide by any such standards, thus much of the deforestation we witness along our west coast and inland are mercury emissions, carbon and other byproducts of coal combustion from those powerplants. And this is what we witness with the naked eye. Scientists now estimate over 17 percent of Chinese emissions make it to our shores, while much of the rest contaminates downwind eastern Asian countries and the Pacific Ocean. Making matters worse, those in the path of China's toxic pollution cloud also suffer the health concerns of inhaling those compounds leading to respiratory damage, heart disease and cancer, in addition to increased medical costs associated with subsequent treatment.
How are we to blame? Endless litigation and years for utilities just to have their permit to build a powerplant approved for starters. Take Xcel Energy and Otter Tail Power's past attempt to build a coal fired power plant in Milbank, South Dakota. While representatives for the utility say that the Big Stone II plant would be 20 percent more efficient than the average existing coal fired power plant, it would also emit less carbon dioxide than current domestic plants. Here's the irony. While the environmental crowd files endless lawsuits against utilities the costs to generate electricity naturally rise. A 5 percent rise in a homeowners utility bill may not be a shocker, but how about in a manufacturing facility where the electric bill is $5,000 a day? Rather than working with our utilities to ensure that we build some of the most efficient, environmentally friendly power generation with the latest available technologies, we now suffer the ill effects of long range pollution from a source we have zero control over.
While many cite the primary reason for our manufacturing industry relocating to other countries far from the United States as savings in labor costs, this is a rather short sighted observation. For instance, look at the federal law that now bans incandescent light bulbs, most of which will be replaced with compact fluorscent lamps, or CFL's. The manufacture of CFL's is highly automated. If labor were such a savings, why would we not be producing those light bulbs domestically rather than sit by and watch those facilities close and the jobs disappear? And ironically, the majority of those CFL's, which contain mercury, are produced in, you guessed it, China.
By no means am I writing to condone shutting down domestic coal-fired powerplants. However we have to do a reality check. The options for power generation are limited. We are not even close to converting our power grid to "green/renewable energy. We are however, destroying the industrial side of our economy by being overly hostile to the power generation industry. While the reasons may be numerous, lowering our infrastructure costs to manufacturing and becoming more friendly towards the power generation community may very well just reduce the flood of high paying, valuable manufacturing jobs from relocating to lands far from ours, and additionally save our forests, inland waterways and habitats from the ill effects of deforestation, acid rain, crop failure, respiratory damage and premature death attributed to the combustion of coal originating overseas.