Inconvenient truths about our electricity.

last updated 8 January 2015

Belgium

Karen Janssens

Belgium’s electric company has decided to pretend to care about the environment, said Karen Janssens in Brussels’ La Libre Belgique. Electrabel is giving out free DVDs of Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, “a film largely responsible for raising Belgian awareness about the problem of climate change.” The movie is certainly worth seeing—but we shouldn’t allow Electrabel to bask in its glow. If the company really wanted to combat global warming, it would stop pouring all its research money into biofuels that can be mixed with coal. That effort simply prolongs Belgium’s dependence on coal, one of the worst pollutants of all. Or perhaps Electrabel scientists could figure out a way to wean us off of nuclear power, which currently provides almost half of our electricity. Nukes may be greener in the short term, but in the long term the radioactive waste will pollute the planet “worse than coal.” Unfortunately, the truly green alternatives, such as solar energy and wind energy, are sadly underdeveloped here—largely because Electrabel long “abused its dominant market position to block investment in renewable energy.” So thanks for the free DVD, Electrabel. When are you going to watch it?