Coal Discussion

My initial reaction to the con website is that their facts were more straight forward and transparent. They gave solid facts that clean coal plants simply do not exist in the United States. The video that I viewed where the man was standing outside "inside" the new clean coal plant clearly explained that clean coal plants in the U.S. do not exist. One thing about this website is that it did not really do much to offer an alternate solution to fuel. It mentioned wind energy and other sorts of alternatives but does not really much advocating for alternate sources. The pro coal video did not really give many detailed facts about clean coal technology other than it was a good thing. this lack of information on their part reinforces that anti-clean coal site saying that clean coal is not that solid of a system in he United States. However, given the current financial situation in the U.S. coal does strongly appeal to the economic side of interests. This site is saying that coal is affordable and readily available to the Unites States. While this is true, they choose to ignore the fact that coal is a limited and soon to be extinct resource.

In this debate the ideal that is at stake is deciding what is the best natural resource for the U.S. both economically and environmentally. Clean coal technology is the production of coal so that the CO2 emissions are captured and stored so that they cannot be released into the atmosphere. The future for pro-clean coal companies is that they plan to continue to make coal production cleaner and safer. The future for anti-clean coal groups is to do away with the use of coal and begin the creation and use of alternate fuels. The major argument for pro-clean coal companies stating the facts that coal usage accounts for a very large majority of electricity sources in the United States. Their other argument is that coal is very affordable and dependable. The major argument for anti-clean coal groups is that CO2 emissions caused by the burning of coal in processing plants all over the U.S.

The audiences for each argument are different because it can be easily seen that the pro-clean coal ads are appealing to business owners or workers who need an affordable, dependable energy source. The anti-coal group arguments are aimed more toward environmental friendly groups.

The clean coal site is sponsored by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity which obviously is a group whose main concern is the production of clean coal technologies in the United States. The resources for the anti-clean coal site include The Center for Global Development, IEA Greenhouse Gas Program, and the Sierra Club which are all groups whose interests deal with the environment and who are worried about the affects of CO2 gases have on the environment.

The emotional appeals of the pro-clean coal site are affordability and personal well-being of individual workers and business owners. The emotional appeal for the anti-clean coal site plays on the fact that coal emissions are badly hurting our environment. Both are very effective to their respective audiences because business owners are going to worry about affordability and the well-being of their workers. The pro-clean coal site is effective because the people who would look at this this are environmentally concerned about the affects of coal burning.

The visual effects of the sites are polar opposites. The visual effect of the anti-clean coal site uses dark colors and meaningful quotes against clean coal technologies while the pro-clean coal site uses bright colors and uplifting stories of real people to say how important coal is to all of us.