Can't rush power alternative

Perhaps it's the mother of all squeeze plays. If enough municipalities shun electrical power produced by coal-fired power plants, then the nation has to get serious — and quick — about alternative forms of electrical production.

Of course, the other possibility is it's a foolish gamble. Coal has been king since the Industrial Age. It's widely available and relatively inexpensive. But coal-fired power plants pollute the air. Environmentalists go so far as to say that coal-fired power plants contribute to global warming.

The alternatives pose their own challenges. Although nuclear power is widely used in Europe, the United States — in particular the Western United States — has very limited experience with electricity produced in this manner. After the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania and the world's worst nuclear accident in history at the Chernobyl reactor near Kiev in 1986, the public's enthusiasm for nuclear power was greatly tempered. Overall, however, the industry boasts a very good safety record.

But more than two decades after President Ronald Reagan introduced a policy calling for a high-level radioactive waste storage facility, the waste issue is far from settled.

So what are other alternatives? Hydroelectric power has fallen from favor because of its environmental effects. Wind power has exciting potential, but it currently supplies very little of our nation's electricity. Likewise for solar power.

That takes us back to coal. The science on fossil fuel's role in global warming has become nearly irrefutable. America can't keep doing what it's been doing for centuries without further deleterious impacts. It has to be smarter about how it uses coal, make better use of natural gas reserves for producing electricity and, yes, investigate further use of nuclear power.

But, as our nation's history with energy indicates, these advances will take time. Is it prudent, in the meantime, to pressure municipalities to abandon electricity produced by coal-fired power plants? A number of California cities interested in alternative energy have said they won't renew their contracts with Intermountain Power Agency when the agreements expire in 20 years. In February, the Logan Municipal Council will decide whether to purchase an additional 20 megawatts of electricity, in part to prepare for growth. The new demand would help justify the need for a third IPA power unit. Another unit, cautions the Sierra Club, would mean more global warming.