redblueamerica.com

In the interest of honesty, I must take note of this story in today's Washington Post:

GAOLONG, China -- The first time Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he couldn't believe what happened. Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they turned around and drove right back through the gates of their compound without a word.

This ritual has been going on almost every day for nine months, Li and other villagers said.

In China, a country buckling with the breakneck pace of its industrial growth, such stories of environmental pollution are not uncommon. But the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co., here in the central plains of Henan Province near the Yellow River, stands out for one reason: It's a green energy company, producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. But the byproduct of polysilicon production -- silicon tetrachloride -- is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.

(Sigh.)

It'd be nice if China was a little more up-to-date in its environmental regulations and enforcement, but it's not -- at least, not now -- so you're going to get stories like this.

Does this make nuclear power better than solar power? I'm dubious. But it should be apparent that deciding our energy future is going to involve some very hard choices.