Found this article by Chris D’Angelo over at CNN.com…

Boss of Coal-Hauling Railroad says “Fossil Fuels Are Dead”

Hunter Harrison, the CEO of freight railroad CSX Corporation, represents one of the largest railroad companies that haul coal around the country and, for him to say the above is certainly thought provoking.

Whenever I delve into politics, what often bugs me the most is that people tend to have a certain predisposition to information and are often unwilling and/or unable -or even worse, outright lie- about other views.

I’ve pointed out before that I lived through the earlier days of the desktop home computer revolution.  This began, roughly, in the very early 1980’s and my very first computer was an Atari 800…

There she is, in all her glory and with the cartridge bay open (the computer could have two -count ’em- two cartridges placed within the system simultaneously!  (Never mind that I don’t think there ever was a need to have more than one in at a time)

Computer systems have come a hell of a long way since those heady days of the early 1980’s and I’m certain if I offered anyone the choice of going back to that old Atari 800 or using the latest iPhone the choice would be laughably one-sided.

Which is why it frustrates me to see us still using fossil fuels and coal when clearly there are other, cleaner ways of getting our energy.

Ironically enough, it is because of the success of things like cell phones, laptops, etc. and the desire to make better and better batteries for them that has lead to what appears to be this new energy revolution.

Because we needed better and better batteries for our smaller computer gadgets, we’ve developed batteries and battery technologies which have, in turn, uses beyond the cell phone or laptop.

Thus after too many years of extremely slow growth, it appears the electric car may finally replace the old combustion engine.  Solar power, too, is becoming a much more significant piece of our energy grid as is wind power.

And then you have people like Mr. Harrison, whose company operated within the fossil fuel industry, coming out and noting he has to think ahead and that his manner of business is on the outs.

Incredible.

And, moreso, it gives me hope that we can finally start cleaning this planet in earnest.

After all, why would anyone want to live in a smog filled, dirty world?