impediment

Joe Manchin holds his party by the throat;
without him, Democrats can't claim control.
Regardless how them out-of-staters vote
his personal portfolio's all Coal.
More Green alternatives are all around
and many are already in the field.
Like coal, Joes best when six feet underground
'Til then, he'll dance, but never sign a deal.
This Dickens-era fuel we subsidize
sequesters Carbon since the Earth was young.
Joe Biden--in the name of "compromise"
shows no intent to do what must be done.
The midterms loom, the balance could swing back
still, Biden shows no stomach for attack.

Joe/Joe

Joe Biden cedes the filibuster fight
To Manchin without firing a first shot.
In West Virginia, "Democrats" lean Right,
forgetting unions won them all they've got.
The 40-hour work-week, Medicare,
and NewDeal policies on countless things,
drove back the squalor, shedding new light where
mine owners owned their lives, and ruled like kings.
Unspoken goes the threat that Joe might switch;
McConnell'd gloat to claim him as his own!
From modest roots to corporations' bitch,
Joe's never thought a thought to call his own.
The Chair of Energy's in debt to Coal
and quite enjoys this feeling of control.

geopolitics

the assets that gave Saudis global pull
now look, with passing time, to be unsound
our energy reserves may soon be full
while leaving gas and crude oil in the ground
we bid adieu to pistons and to steam
O brave new world! Petroleum's day's done
awakening from our smoke-darkened dream
empowered by the slowly fusing sun
capacitors may take the place of gas
if batteries can't give sufficient range
no matter what accelerates your mass
it's just the novelty that makes it strange
our generation teeters on the brink
of leaving sheikhs petroleum to drink

tidal

submissive to the motions of the moon
tides bow and scrape retreating from the sand
but stand up tall when sun stands at the noon
each wave dividing heaven's clock's sweep-hand
as interfering curves add and subtract
the waters mount to Spring, now lull to Neap
and endless dance of retreat and attack
now spread about, now gathered in a heap
the angular momentum of the Earth
might yet replace the coal we oughtn't burn
but going Green need not mean cold, and dearth
the options are at hand, if we'd but learn.
Hooked to the grid, such power could be canned
that's now employed redistributing sand   

externalities

the IMF sums externalities
and finds the world's been subsidizing coal
the cost incurred is much more than one sees
each passing month, we're deeper in the hole
"abomination!" Steven Chu decreed
we've got to leave that carbon in the ground
to burn what's been sequestered's a black deed
and so environmentally unsound
extractive industries enriched the Few
degrading atmosphere and health for All
for every buck they "made" it cost us two
but such a house of cards must--one day--fall
renewables must come into their own
if we're to have a planet to call home

storage

the Hydrogen economy's a joke
that makes the chemists wince and roll their eyes
it's perpetrated on the kind of folk
who don't care some must waft into the skies
a greenhouse gas more stark than CO2
that bleeds through steel as if it's barely there
the Miller-Urey primorial brew
is not compatible with breathing air
externalizing the container's weight
directs the gaze to density as fuel
but if one sums all columns on the slate
to claim it comes out "green" you'd be a fool
Aluminum's the high-density bet
but we're not out of Lithium (just yet)

we have all been here before

the Carboniferrous laid beds of coal
re-engineering our whole atmosphere
if we're not gonna pay this fearsome toll
what's in the ground will have to be left there
two hundred years, we've burned our capital
trajectory we never could sustain
miscalculating not just a little
we've earned ourselves a planet wracked with pain
a greenhouse planet favors spores and seeds
but not so much the birds and fish and beasts
our evolution posits basic needs
of which a drier climate is the least
turn back the clock! what's left is no surprise
a world that's ruled by giant dragonflies      

death by coal

renewables are all the rage today
Coal barons find their assets are just holes
but fusion's always thirty years away
except for what we harvest here from Sol
if smog in Beijing eats the paint off cars
as bad a London's in king Edward's age
and children's lungs are hobbled there with scars
then China should be first this war to wage
instead she moves sources of CO2
into the ethnic far west countryside
for ev'ry solar farm, there's coal plants two
where more Uyghurs and fewer Han reside
all mankind shares a common atmosphere
extinction looms if we can't make it here

in the long run

James Hanson warns one must keep honest books
end subsidies for ev'ry power stream
each kilowatt costs way more than it looks
we can't pretend that coal makes only steam
extractive industries made the few rich
their costs were sloughed as externalities
our planet's now careening towards the ditch
we dug in the delusion waste was free
and fission plants could turn out even worse
'til we can safely store atomic waste
if starship earth becomes our glowing hearse
we'll rue at leisure what we wrought in haste
what's not sustainable's never ok
we burn our children's tomorrows today