I read with some amusement a recent editorial in the State News where the writer contrasted recent protests with those of the past — opining that Occupy Wall Street and those students who would like to improve our health by getting rid of coal burning on campus are not serious protesters because, unlike the successful protesters of the 1960s, they have “no clear goals.” Maybe he should have asked someone who was old enough to be there in the ‘60s how focused and organized some of those protests were?
I remember it quite differently. Did we all have a “clear plan” on how we expected change could be implemented? Not that I recall. Were we as undisciplined as today’s protesters? Even more so. We had guys who wanted to work within the system and guys who wanted to bring down the system. We had guys who wanted Black Power, People Power, Women’s Lib., Animal Rights, Student Rights, etc & etc.
As for the writer’s opinion that switching away from burning coal would be too expensive? Maybe the writer should do what I did and spend five minutes looking at the Simon Power Plant’s own website for a few facts. He would discover that the MSU plant is a cogeneration plant that also burns natural gas and biowaste.
Although the price of alternatives and cleaner natural gas is falling, the price of coal is rising rapidly. MSU spent $29.6 million on coal in the 2009-10 fiscal year, a 30 percent increase from 2006. The oldest boiler was commissioned in 1965, and the entire plant is operating at only 60 percent efficiency. It‘s not a matter of “if” coal will be replaced, but when.
I think it naive to believe if you can just express yourself clearly enough, everyone will agree with you. The anti-war protests of the past were successful in large part not because the protesters of that era talked in clear, reasoned sound bites, but because Vietnam, after 10 years of effort, proved to be ultimately unsustainable. I suspect coal power will sooner or later also prove unsustainable. Let’s hope for sooner.
A few years ago, it was unsettling to be coming down Trowbridge road to bring my own daughter to campus for the first time to deliver her to Holden Hall in the shadow of the T.B. Simon coal plant as it belched its fumes near the dorm where my daughter was to live.
As for protests on campus, I have one bit of advice from the ‘60s for you OWS people and you Beyond Coal guys: Keep on keeping on.
Mark Woodbury, MSU alumnus
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