I THOROUGHLY enjoyed Dr. Thomas D. Arkle’s reply to Bruce Bateman’s excellent column questioning information regarding the new nuclear modules and suggesting coal as a power-generating alternative. Dr. Arkle’s take was that coal is an alternative that should be looked at, but that it’s one unsolvable drawback of greenhouse emissions controls makes it prohibitive in cost.
Not to worry. Al Gore has solved our problem. We can build a coal-fired power plant and pollute all we want, as long as we pay for pollution offsets. That’s right — we can pollute and pay somebody else not to pollute, and we will be “carbon neutral.” Al Gore jets around the country polluting the air, lives in a 10-room mansion requiring a lot of energy to either heat or cool, yet is “carbon neutral.” At least that’s what he testified to in front of a U.S. congressional committee. He buys carbon offsets from a company he helped found and invested in, Generation Investment Management.
So, why can’t we?
I like this idea of offsets. Could we use offsets in other daily endeavors such as speeding or littering? Could we pay someone to drive below the speed limit so that we could then drive above the speed limit, but be considered “speed neutral.” The next time a cop pulls you over for speeding, tell him you paid Juan Malimanga (for the sub-informed, Juan is a PDN cartoon character) not to speed and that you are “speed neutral.” Or why bother taking your “basula” to the dump; just toss it anywhere you wish and pay someone else to take their trash to the dump. See how easy it is to be trash neutral.
So, let’s investigate coal-fired power generation and not worry about pollution. We could even hire Al Gore as a consultant to help us be “carbon neutral.”

ED KLINGSBERGS
Susupe, Saipan