Haven't had Time to Get This Issue Finished... but Decided that The Links Below Needed to Be Made Available as Soon as Possible.

Alexander County is Trying to Get a Coal Gasification Plant Built just North of Cairo. While It Will Give the County a "Quick Fix" Economically and Provide Some Jobs... In the Long Run It Will Be a Huge Mistake... and a Tragedy for The Town of Cairo.

At "This Time"... the FAA seems to Be the Only "Hold Up" on Finalizing the Plans to "Move the Airport" and Start the Ground Breaking. Hopefully, they will See the Wisdom in Blocking This Project from Happening.

The Town of Cairo is in Dire Need of an Economic Boost and Employment Opportunity. To Many, the Coal Gasification Plant appears to be a "God Send". But Desperate People do Desperate Things... and The Cairo Community is too Desperate to Think Reasonably and Rationally on This Issue. And because It "Seems" like such a "Popular Issue"... none of The Area Leaders and Institutions are Brave Enough to Take a Stand. Most likely, None of Them have Really Researched the Project to have an Educated Opinion. Of course, Our State Politicians Probably "Know Better"... but We Have an Election Coming Up You Know. Maybe if The FAA can Stall till "After" the Elections... a Politician or Two Will Be Responsible Enough to "Come Clean" on Coal Gasification... or at Least "Withdraw Their Support"... like Obama did with Grain Based Ethanol.

The Politics of Coal is a "Dirty Business"! While the Coal Gasification Plant "In and of Itself" is not "That Bad" in terms of Pollution... the Coal has to Come from Some Where. And "there in" Lies the Greatest Destruction to The Landscape, The Environment and The Lives of Hundreds of Thousands of People. And even at Cairo Itself... a Beautiful Area of Open Plain will be Turned Into a Huge Conglomeration of Concrete and Steel. Ugly as All Hell... and Probably just as Smelly.

Why would any Sane Community want to Inflict that on Themselves. Besides, Cairo Itself won't Profit Much. It's the County that will get most of The Gravy. And what Neither Will Probably Consider... is that in less than 5 years... the Plant Will Probably Be Shut Down... if Only for Scientific and Political Reasons. Coal is Not a Feasible Alternative to Our Energy Problems. It Is a Desperate Measure... that was "Thought Out" about as much as the BioFuel Fiasco. IT WON'T BE SUSTAINABLE... and It Won't Continue to Get Government Support and Funding. And just "Who" is going to Pay to have The Mess Cleaned Up a Few Years Down the Road??? Probably "YOU"... if You Live in Alexander County.

I Just Hope Cairo and Alexander County have Negotiated a Billion Dollar Stipend... to Help the Communities Involved Recover Financially... or Else We are Going to Wind Up with "Less" Economically than We Stared With! Plus We Will Have One Big "Worthless Mess" on Our Hands... Further Mucking Up the Beauty of Southern Illinois!

When Will We See that "Alternative Energy" is Our Only Solution... and The Only Long Term Answer to Our Economic and Political Woes? And If We (Cairo & Alexander County) Look Around Us... We Have All The Natural Resources and "Power" We Need to Supply Not Only "Our" Energy Needs... but Plenty "Left Over" to Sell to Surrounding Areas. Now "That" is Good Business... and Good Politics!  :)

For a Better Informed & Involved Public...

Lonnie J. Burris
Activist & Concerned Citizen