Following Ian’s comment, I thought I should link to this article, which I read a while back, and which lay behind my depression at that letter in the local paper.

“As a species, we must back the right horse and stop being misled by the coal industry’s delaying tactics. There’s a big opportunity cost in time and resources to going down the wrong path. Each new power plant big coal builds means decades of fat profit for it, but for the rest of us here on Earth, it’s just bad, bad news.”