A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial today calls for a "thorough investigation" into the Oak Creek power plant bluff collapse/coal ash spill into Lake Michigan. But, say the editors, let's not call coal ash "hazardous waste" , which would force the building of hazardous waste landfills, cost WE Energies $300 million a year, raise our electricity rates and reduce the marketability of recycled coal ash products.

Dear editors, this is the price of burning coal. Coal as a fuel is cheap only if we exclude the considerable costs of coal's mining (now mostly destructive strip mining and longwall mining) and coal's burning (air & water pollution, toxic ash and carbon dioxide.) What we don't pay for upfront we  must pay for through environmental degradation and its costs to human health and taxpayer-funded clean-ups.

Pretending that coal ash is not hazardous and that the DNR and our electric utilities will always act in the best interests of land and health will not make the consequences of coal go away.  Only by paying the full price of coal, conserving  electricity and learning to leave coal in the ground will we end coal's scourge.

The editors did publish a good, differing opinion on coal ash regulation, as well as a fine letter on the need for more environmental regulation in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

And see below for a recent look at coal ash pond proliferation.

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