I have begun to use Sigg stainless steel bottle now.

I live close to the Sun refinery in Toledo Ohio, I can see the burn stacks (for lack of a better term) from my house, and they do in fact burn off some type of gas all the time. I can’t for sure say what it is, but the rumor is there is a poisonous gas byproduct of the refining process that they burn off.

The burning runs almost 24-7, 365 days of the year. I live ½ mile away and at times you can easily read a book at night from the glow of the flames.

Re the clean and dirty coal, it's typically like this, or at least was when I was involved in such things: Canada mostly has dirty coal, which they sell to the U.S. to burn there. Canada buys the clean U.S. coal to burn in Canada. LOL. It's a good thing the air stops at the border...

(How the heck did we go from polycarbonate to coal? Oh well, here goes.)

I don't know about Central Canada, but my understanding is that all the coal in that broad region (on either side of the border) is high in sulfur, which is a big problem in terms of smog and acid rain. One deposit is always different from another, of course. And geology does not respect borders.

Coal in Western Canada (and I would assume in the States south of us) is very low in sulfur. And we have a huge amount of it, close to the surface. As with most coal, there's a little bit of mercury and arsenic to give it "flavour." There are many initiatives underway in this part of the world regarding coal gasification ("clean coal" in hype language). Billions of dollars are committed in Central Alberta alone; and much more is coming as we try to build networks to pump CO2 (and other crud) from coal and oilsands underground. This is an undertaking as large as the coal/oil industry itself; it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

^ It is kinda complicated, and logic won't give the reasons. I think it's politics, and the associated regulations. And some contracts are entered into for a decade plus. Also, what was even stranger to me than the coal jurisdictional movement, is how it is shipped (often literally) between and around Canada and the U.S. and the routes. Again, politics and regulations, besides available infrastructure. It is similar to people here asking: how come Canada imports more oil than it consumes, and also exports more than it consumes? Wouldn't it be a lot simpler and easier and more secure (and cheaper!) to just keep it mostly "in house"? That is a lot simpler to answer and makes perfect sense, if you consider who owns the refineries, the pipelines, the oil, the transportation. There is nothing like selling stuff to yourself (indirectly), moving it around and charging a good markup to yourself for each stage. The government takes a chunk of each of that too, so they'll soon complain... LOL, I really do find it funny, wish I had a piece...

How keen are people in BC about coal mines? I bet not much, not nearly as keen as people in Alberta would probably be. I'm in Ontario, and I guess (been a while, so may have changed too) it was all-round cheaper to get clean coal from the U.S. via the Great Lakes than shipping it by rail from elsewhere in Canada. Plus didn't have to have as good scrubbers etc. to meet whatever regs there were. And ship "our" (Canada's) dirty coal to places that burn it anyway and are set up for it reg-wise (if any, grandfathered). And the contractor's brother-in-law owned a clean coal mine, and his uncle a few GL freighters, etc.


I have noticed the Nalgene-style bottles are very hard to find now around here. They sure cleared them out quickly. Wal-Mart had big bins of some Chinese #7 plastic containers on sale last week...advance notice??

Dihydrogen monoxide has killed more people than BPA.

It's funny because it's true.