“This move by the EPA can lead to only one conclusion — the Obama administration is trying to end the use of coal as we know it,” said West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin in a press release. “This regulation will devastate West Virginia and our region by reducing jobs and unnecessarily increasing the cost of power for our citizens. I will not stand for it.”
And that’s a Democrat talking.
“This regulation will devastate West Virginia.”
And that’s a Democrat talking.
You voted for HopeyChangie, Buyers remorse?
–
On another note- MSM Head Spin.
Ann Romney’s rock star status has the political arena buzzing about her husband’s campaign.
In an election in which Michelle Obama —
one of the most admired first ladies in history.
Hah.
Heh. The DemoncRat just wants to keep his cushy job.Besides,if the zero/EPA kill the coal industry,how can he get his kickbacks from the cap and trade scheme?
So hard to believe that our benevolent and capitalist protector nation to the south were so suckered by this Leninesque malevolent easter bunny president. He won’t be happy till, like his good friend Ayers, he has “brought down capitalism”. Always the protector and benefactor has been the United States, when has anyone heard about a sunami or an earthquake disaster of any kind, anywhere in the world, without the tag, American aid is on the way. Well that day is over, people in distress will have to call for the French or the Syrians help, good luck with that.
heh. The demoncRat just wants to keep his cushy job. Oh wait.If the zero/EPA shut down the coal industry,how will he get his kickbacks from a cap and trade scheme?
My first thought was how did this guy ever get elected.
I then remember that since the mid 60’s the sheeple of Canada have been electing progressives. Cumulating with 28 Jun 04 election of known thieves.
I will not stand for it.
So, what are you going to do about it?
He did what he said he’d do and you profess surprise? Some people shouldn’t vote.
The EPA is an astonishingly powerful organization. It makes unilateral decisions profoundly affecting the lives of tens of millions of people — even at times destroying regional economies — with little or no democratic input.
I don’t get it. Americans are in many ways the most democratic of people. Why would they allow such despotic bureaus?
Yes Americans are democratic as are Albertans. Here in Alberta the government of the day passed the most anti-democratic law in Canadian history and the PC government is still defending it! Goes to show how too much of any one party is bad for a nation.
What can one say but “duh!” Bambi said he’d do it and he has.
Americans free? They were free. Now they have all the apparatus of a police state in place. It is just a matter of time
until that apparatus is put into effect.
Dorks! Burning coal as much as technically possible is the only hope for protein based life to survive on Earth long term.
Too much of it is being deposited into the ground by the stupid brainless plants. CO2 content in the atmosphere is gradually depleting.
Did the plants think of what they will eat after the last CO2 molecula is converted into hard carbon?
As opposed to the plants, we have brains. Just not all of us know how to use them.
Just my 2c.
BTEL
“This regulation will devastate West Virginia”
It’s already devastated.
If you ask me (and Joe, I agree with your point too), it goes to show that people have been hoodwinked. As the great Christian apologist, G.K. Chesterton, said, “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.” As the West has hollowed out and then finally erased Judeo-Christianity from the public square—for the past 50 years—the citizens of the West have become like brain-dead zombies.
In a fine article by Tom West at The Claremont Institute, here’s what Allan Bloom, the American academic thought:
“Allan Bloom’s Closing of the American Mind was published in 1987, and it has been bought, if not exactly read, by millions of Americans since then. In many ways this was a very useful book. It brought into public view the scandal of the universities, which openly teach that there is no principled difference between good and evil. Bloom exposes and denounces the pervasive and mindless relativism has exhausted the spirit of the West so badly over the past century. . . .
“Bloom’s book is a diagnosis of the intellectual and moral ills of our day. If it is not a prescription, it contains at least some suggestions for a cure. The book is most sound, I will argue, in its description of current pathologies. . . .
“Bloom begins by examining the students in our prestige universities, and he finds them deficient in moral formation, in reading of serious books, in musical tastes, and above all in love. They are shallow. They have no longing in their souls for anything high or great. Their minds are empty, their characters weak, and their bodies sated with rock and roll and easy sex — or at least with the belief that sex is ‘no big deal.’ These students [and most of their parents, of my generation] come equipped with a simple-minded relativism that is quick to close off all discussion with the tag, ‘Who’s to say what’s right and wrong?’ Their relativism justifies an easygoing openness to everything, an openness which expresses their incapacity for being serious about anything. Their proclaimed openness, in fact, turns out to be a dogmatic closedness toward moral virtue no less than toward real thoughtfulness. They are ‘spiritually detumescent.’”
Read the rest at: http://www.claremont.org/publications/pubid.664/pub_detail.asp
I don’t think that Bloom would be the least bit surprised by the election of Zer0—and that fact, carried out by the flabby will of millions of unobservant and/or Pollyanna Americans, is far worse than the fact that Zer0 is a sworn enemy of the very “folks” who voted for him. As I’ve said before, the loss of our spiritual foundation—the altogether unrelativistic Judeo-Christianity, which is scoffed at by “those in the know”—has everything to do with the “spiritual detumescence” Bloom diagnosed. Kyrie eleison.
“If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.”
Yep! That’s a fact.
With natural gas plummeting I don’t see a reason to continue coal usage. Have any of you actually been in any states heavily affected by coal power plant pollution? Maybe it will be a more rounded way of producing electricity in the future, but right now there are much better options. Passive safety nuclear power plants and natural gas are both umpteen times better.
The reality is with advances in natural gas capturing nothing can come close to a combined cycle natural gas plant.
lookout – thanks for your thoughts and the link and clip. Really excellent comments.
lookout, what you outline is the proof why no economic ‘system’, such as capitalism, will save anyone.
Without knowledge of what is right no system can survive.
The sages led the way and we’re supposed to look to them to fix it. I don’t think so…
The sooner this scab on the nation’s back-side is gone the better. I guess he’s in line with this new leftist trend which has leftwing governments totally mismanaging energy policy and resources – boosting energy costs with bad decisions which are crippling productive capacity.
I have said it here before but it bears repeating because not enough people tweek onto the fact that the fuel of the future is coal and shale gas.
The cost benefits of producing electric energy with the new super efficient coal fueled plants is more environmentally and economically sound than either Nukes or gas – and green energy (which is costly and unreliable is not suited for keeping a stable transnational grid powered) should be relegated to the commune.
We really have to get these leftaed hillbilly cave dwellers away form energy production/policy. North American affluence and economic power was built as a direct result of cheap abundant electric energy. It’s time we put the lefty cave dwellers back in the bottle and contiue forward with human development without them.
Here in Ontario we have Dalton McGuinty a political clone of the zero.It boggles the mind that there are enough idiots on the loose to elect these enemies of democracy and common sense.
“And that’s a Democrat talking.”
Yes, a Democrat politician who’s up for re-election in 7 months in the US’s #2-ranked coal-producing state.
What else is Tomblin gonna say? His comments might be slightly eyebrow-raising only if you think of the world in reductive, hyper-partisan, Red Team-vs-Blue Team thinking.
Besides, this reg only applies to new power plant construction, and even then, they can still be built as long as they include new carbon capture and storage technologies (like the ones that Saskatchewan and Montana are implementing together), AND they’d have a thirty-year window to meet the new 1,000 lb per megawatt‐hour standard. Given the sheer amount of coal/money still underground in the US, I suspect it won’t take long before CCS technologies are made cost-effective and widely available. Decades from now, coal will still be a part of the US energy portfolio — it’ll just be a lot cleaner than it is now.
The same CO2 storage nonsense will be going by the wayside in Alberta.
God, these progressive idiots can sure think up ways to spend other peoples money. Not so good on making money…
How can otherwise sane people vote for such dangerous, out to lunch wakos?
Simple – corrupt influence of the MEA-DEE-AHH
Couch
“Besides, this reg only applies to new power plant construction, and even then, they can still be built as long as they include new carbon capture and storage technologies (like the ones that Saskatchewan and Montana are implementing together), AND they’d have a thirty-year window to meet the new 1,000 lb per megawatt‐hour standard.”
And what rabbit hole didja jerk that from? These regs make new conbstruction impossible and will close all coal generators before about 2015.
that 1000 lb/mw is only possible with NG and the EPA wants to shut down fraking….recent losing in court but then drilling in the Gulf of Mexico ain’t happening despite a court ordered end to the moratorium.
It’s about shutting of energy…nothing to do with science or clean air.
The bonus is making W Virginia crackers unemployed.
Carbon capture and storage: digging up and burning 50% more coal than you need for your power demands, in order to have enough excess energy to power the compressors that pump CO2 into the ground.
AKA: fool’s errand.
Just saw on CNN that President Obama plans to implement Nikola Tesla’s 77 year old plan for free world wide energy by 2016 if he gets re-elected. This is fantastic news, then my alarm clock rang and I woke up sorry.
Ah, West Virginia. So many decades loyally voting D; always returning that old Klansman to the senate so he could name everything in the State after himself. And for what? With Obama, you scratch government’s back and wind up with a knife in yours.
West Virginia is not the only coal state, but it is one that has been reliably Democrat. Pennsylvania is a swing state that will be hit hard in the unions by this move.
Bartinsky said; ” So hard to believe that our benevolent and capitalist protector nation to the south were so suckered by this Leninesque malevolent easter bunny president.”
Yea, and those 10 Million absentee ballots from Acorn sure helped too.
sasquatch: “And what rabbit hole didja jerk that from?”
The actual proposed regulation. Why, where do you get your information from?
Oh right, places like here.
Lawrence Solomon has another great read in this past Saturdays Financial Post where he suggests that a world awash in oil/gas/coal (much of it in the USA) will eventually make the Middle East, incl Saudi Arabia, the irrelevant backwater that it has been for most of modern history.
Over the next 10 to 20 years, with the price of oil dipping to the $50-60 range, he goes on to suggest that the Sauds and other middle east autocrats won’t be able to hold financial sway over their masses resulting in upheavals.
My point to all of this is that a Republican win in November should, in addition to a reversal of this EPA coal decision, start the US onto a path of self sufficient energy production. And the middle east into a decline.
“Passive safety nuclear power plants and natural gas are both umpteen times better. ”
allan s @11:02 AM. Yes they are. Unfortunately,the eco-cultists successfully killed nukes 40 years ago,and the zero/EPA will kill NG if allowed(ie. the zero re-elected).Buy your wood burning stocks and stove,NOW.
“Lawrence Solomon has another great read in this past Saturdays Financial Post…”
Before you get too excited, you should read some of the informed readers’ comments following that FP article. Solomon fails to address a number of important points — e.g., how quickly reserves can actually be recovered (not just the size of the reserves); how much demand will outpace production as China, India, and others expand their economies; the impact of a return to “US$35 to US$40 per barrel” oil on Canada’s tar sands production, with its current US$50-60/barrel cost, etc.
Energy independence isn’t a bad thing, but technology alone won’t save the day. More efficient consumption is going to have to be part of the discussion.
bartinsky: “He [O’narcissist] won’t be happy till, like his good friend Ayers, he has “brought down capitalism”.”
Here is Canadian native son, Liberal leader Rae’s uncle Mo Strong.
The aim/goal of Strong’s gospel is to smash Western civilization/capitalism.
How? Enforced serfdom: “for industrial civilization to collapse.”
Strong now waits in Red China for the end. Will Strong live to welcome the end?
…-
“Strong on the impending global environmental catastrophe…
“If we don’t change, our species will not survive… Frankly, we may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.” -Maurice Strong quoted in the September 1, 1997 edition of National Review magazine.”
http://www.nationalcenter.org/DossierStrong.html
God, couch is dumb. She, basically, says that higher demand for oil will cause lower prices.
This is why is best to keep leftoids far away from the economic levers of power.
If you want a good laugh read this:
CHAPTER 3
DEFINING THE CLIMATE CHANGE PROBLEM AND RATIONALE FOR RULEMAKING
Its in the impact analysis PDF. It’s like reading a reply from Mcguinty’s office after you’ve complained about their green energy policy.
Well much more of this nonsense and I’ll have to say it was nice living beside the number 1 super power.
– all life on this planet is carbon-based
– carbon dioxide is a trace atmospheric gas
– the atmosphere has 0.038% of carbon dioxide
– double the amount of carbon dioxide and it will still be a trace atmospheric gas
– Roger Revelle, the grandfather of our modern greenhouse science and also the famed mentor to Al Gore, said: “Increased CO2 in the air acts like a fertilizer for plants … you get more plant growth.”*
– rather than figuring out how to INCREASE carbon dioxide emissions, the big brains are trying to figure out how to DECREASE carbon dioxide in the air!
– more CO2 = more vegetation = more life
– carbon is life; embrace carbon
– get over carbophobia — an irrational fear of carbon dioxide
* AN IRRATIONAL FEAR OF CARBON
http://www.bobbrinsmead.com/e_An_Irrational_Fear_of_Carbon.html
“She, basically, says that higher demand for oil will cause lower prices.”
No, just pointing out a few of the many, many factors — some opposing — that Solomon failed to consider in his optimistic but over-simplified article.
And are we to assume, from your lack of substantive content, that you think his argument is just swell?
And are we to assume, from your lack of substantive content,…
Here’s some substantive content for you…contrary to all past evidence that technology and the free market have supplied needs absent central control, you ASSume that will/might stop.
Where is your substantive content to support that?
More efficient consumption is going to have to be part of the discussion.
Absolutely. And gasoline consumption in the US has, you should excuse the expression, tanked: US Daily Gasoline Use. This is part in response to higher fuel prices (people choose to drive less), and part the effect of higher efficiency vehicles (a more potent but more slowly changing component).
Meanwhile, electricity consumption in the US peaked in 2008, and is still declining. Higher efficiency appliances and lights help here, although certainly, declining industrial use due to shuttered industry (not what I would call a good thing) definitely contributes.
My point is consumers do respond to price signals; it just takes a while. For example, if gas spikes to $1.50/l for a long weekend, you’re not going to trade in your sedan for a compact. But if gas prices average over $3 US/gal, as they did in 2011, a significant number of people will trade in their 1990’s machines for new ones, almost certainly improving fuel economy by 20% or more. If regular price signals work, there’s no need to impose artificial ones, such as carbon capture costs, based on the false god of AGW.
Sure, China/India et al will increase their oil consumption, but it’s unlikely their pattern will mirror that of the US and Canada. Just as emerging country wireless telephony networks have leapfrogged past our legacy pole-and-wire ones, so will their transportation infrastructure avoid the widely dispersed North American model. Thus, while American families in Ohio may think nothing of driving to DisneyWorld, it’s doubtful any Chinese would think of driving from Beijing to Hong Kong’s Disney park. No one in India would have a 60 mile commute to work (although, given the state of their roads and traffic, a 10 mile commute might take as long in time as the American’s 60!). Neither will have the problem of millions of 20 year old refrigerators and A/C’s running at 1/3rd the efficiency of new ones.
Improving efficiency and doing more with less has been driving engineers for hundreds of years. I see lots of evidence that’s still happening and I don’t see any reason why it will change.
While I apologize posting on top of myself, this delicious item just caught my eye:
(from ZeroHedge)
Solyndra was just the appetizer. Earlier today, in what will come as a surprise only to members of the administration, the company which proudly held the rights to the world’s largest solar power project, the hilariously named Solar Trust of America (“STA”), filed for bankruptcy. And while one could say that the company’s epic collapse is more a function of alternative energy politics in Germany, where its 70% parent Solar Millennium AG filed for bankruptcy last December, what is relevant is that last April STA was the proud recipient of a $2.1 billion conditional loan from the Department of Energy, incidentally the second largest loan ever handed out by the DOE’s Stephen Chu.
one frame pretty much sums it all up…
http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/mrz040212dAPR20120401074524.jpg
“More efficient consumption is going to have to be part of the discussion.”
Perhaps, Davenport. But remember that greater efficiency stimulates greater consumption, not less. For example, during the past 40 years, vehicle fuel efficiency has gone up steadily, but the return for this has been taken in larger vehicles driven further. Industry behaves the same way. Cutting energy costs by reducing energy consumption per unit of production results in increased production.
What energy efficiency never produces is an outright decrease in consumption. To do that, you need to reduce efficiency.
Kevin, China and India will indeed have a very different model from North America. These countries have a population density well in excess of 500/sq.km., well in excess of the North American average of 50. That makes all kinds of mass transportation economic models viable where they are not here.
Your point about price signals is also well taken. The key factor is capital stock turnover. Vehicle fleets turn over about every five years. Electric generating stations turn over about every 50-75 years, except for gas-fired plants which can recoup their capital investment in less than five years.
And as for decreased consumption, that is entirely due to the recession in my view. If you look at energy consumption on national scales over the past 50 years, it’s very easy to pick out the declines; they match perfectly with the recession. But any large surge in investment on efficiency or demand reduction is entirely invisible in the overall numbers. In short, on any significant scale, they have never actually shown any ability to actually reduce raw energy demand.
The secularization to the point of moral irrelevancy.
Gas been going on in the West since
The Murder of Thomas Becket, 1170
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/becket.htm
Humanism & its variants, predicated on moral relativism has been taking over every institution with ethical underpinnings by secular fiat for a long time. The Magna Carta was a reaction against this grouping of people into collectives, including so called nobles. In those days it was called Monarchical infallibility based on blood lines. Today its eugenics, From Education to Medicine (which even in Pagan culture had a humanitarian basis) to the Judiciary. We have slowly been taken over by the least moral or ethical organs of society. Todays culture is the result. This is the end of a long struggle by secularists to be free of any Church , temple or any social restraints for a self described elite.
By secularists I mean those who would have no morals , indeed would turn them upside down for their groups control.
The EPA is out of control. The DoJ is out of control. The IRS is out of control – though it may appear positively benign compared to the other two these days. Maybe.
Surely by now it is obvious that Obama is the worst American president in history?