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“Time to end the war on coal”

We all know that Obama essentially threatened to bankrupt the coal industry — the very industry responsible for creating the electricity for the ridiculous, unpopular cars he wishes we’d buy.  But the extent to which he’s gone to keep his promise is even more staggering than we imagined.

Rebekah Rast pools the frightening facts  here.

Viewed through the lens of “protecting the environment,” this attack on the coal industry appears merely ill-considered and over-zealous.  But viewed through the lens of an orchestrated, left-wing assault on capitalism and a vibrant middle class — with the end goal being to manage US decline and re-built us as a kind of Europeanized soft socialist welfare state — it is perfectly reasonable, and explains why, despite howls of protests and studies showing that such burdensome regulations on coal will not only cost jobs, but will eventually lead to rolling blackouts, etc., the Obama Administration, gorged as it is with radical leftist ideologues, continues to ignore dire warnings about how the war on coal will hurt the larger economy:  it’s supposed to do just that.

I know.  Visigothy.

And yet, who really has to do the stretching, straining, and avoiding of facts and trends in order to continue to paint this President and his Administration as misguided pragmatists in over their heads?

That last is, of course, rhetorical.

27 Replies to ““Time to end the war on coal””

  1. newrouter says:

    “You know, each of us is only here because somebody somewhere felt responsibility, yes to their families, but also to their fellow citizens. Also to our country’s future. That’s the American story. The American story is not just about what we do on our own. Yes, we’re rugged individualists, we expect personally responsibility and everybody out there has got to work hard and carry their weight,” President Obama said at a fundraiser with college students at the University of Vermont.

    “We also have always understood that we wouldn’t win the race for new jobs and businesses, and middle class security if we were just applying some ‘you’re on your own economics,'” Obama said.

    “It’s been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked,” Obama said. “It didn’t work when we tried it in the decade before the Great Depression. It didn’t work when we tried it in the last decade. We just tried this. What they’re peddling has been tried — it did not work!”

    link

  2. palaeomerus says:

    End the war on energy and on would be employees(potential future tax revenue). Face it, dems, the republicans were TOTALLY RIGHT about all this labor and energy stuff. Just admit you fucked up, put things back like they were, and then move on.

    Oh wait, Romney wants a minimum wage indexed to inflation. Nevermind. Silly me.

  3. cranky-d says:

    I’ve met a few progressives who believed that it was possible to legislate technology into existence. None of them were engineers. You pass impossible standards to rid yourself of a given technology while having an excuse to do so.

    Doing it for The Children™ appears to still carry some weight, though I’m not sure how many people besides other progressives will buy that excuse for very much longer.

    The problem is that the State has grown so powerful that people believe nothing can be done to stop it. That is by design. Autonomous government agencies should not be allowed to exist, and yet our lazy Congress doesn’t seem to care.

    This can easily be stopped, if the political will exists. That being said, I doubt it will be. At least the candle makers will profit.

  4. bergerbilder says:

    This hits too close to home for me. My SIL works for AEP in SE Ohio as a project engineer. He, my daughter, and granddaughter have been building a life over the last several years in a difficult part of the country. Now they feel like it might all crash down on them.

    What does he have against the white middle class family? What did they do to him to put that huge chip on his shoulder? I truly believe this guy is a sociopath.

  5. LBascom says:

    Coal is nasty dirty stuff, and should be replaced. Replaced. Not dumped, replaced.

    Natural gas or nuclear, I don’t care, but they need to bring something online to REPLACE a coal fired plant(it’s actual output, not it’s potential output) before they close it down. Solar, wind or even algae don’t count, at least until they can produce electricity as efficiently as coal. And that ain’t going to happen.

  6. Ernst Schreiber says:

    cranky-d,

    whaddya expect from people who follow the gospel according to John?

  7. Ernst Schreiber says:

    What does he have against them bergerbilder?

    Other than they’re white and they’re middle class, nothing.

    And coal is no nastier or dirtier than crude.

  8. StrangernFiction says:

    “I think [Obama] is great.” — Matt Romney

  9. dicentra says:

    First you bring them to their knees by inducing scarcity and hunger:

    Drive the price of everything through the roof
    Inflate the currency
    Destroy investments liquid and not

    Then you set this volatile mix on fire:

    Race riots
    Occupy Wall Street
    Bubba and his gun; DHS and their millions of shiny new hollow-points

    And when the populace begs you to make it all stop, for the love of God, you kindly and lovingly oblige.

    Damn, that Glenn Beck is a lunatic.

  10. cranky-d says:

    If they want the DHS to fire on fellow citizens on that scale, they had better recruit progressives to do the shooting. Anyone else would likely refuse.

  11. alppuccino says:

    “I think [Obama] is great.” — Matt Romney

    Saw this when it happened two weeks ago. Wow, the libs ate it up. Comments like “who cares what that birther says.” and “Once a birther, always a birther.”

    So, he failed to swing those freaks to his side.

    Now, if there are independents who can’t see Obama for the drooling idiot he is, and an off-handed comment by the son of a primary candidate sways their opinion to the “great Obama”, we’ve got more than an offspring-gaffe. We’ve got an IQ deficit problem.

  12. JHoward says:

    Romney wants a minimum wage indexed to inflation.

    That’ll teach inflation a thing or two. In the finest progressive tradition.

  13. Bob M. says:

    A few rolling power outages will add a nice touch to all the preplanned summer riots; the NYC Blackout of ’77 won’t be able to show a candle in comparison.

  14. cranky-d says:

    That new Kel-Tec 14 round shotgun is going for a lot of money over retail.

    Just saying is all.

  15. Jeff G. says:

    That new Kel-Tec 14 round shotgun is going for a lot of money over retail.

    Just saying is all.

    Shit. I knew I should have pre-ordered it.

  16. palaeomerus says:

    I’m going to take my chances with my .357 magnum. I know it well so it’s probably the best thing to grab if the neighborhood gets too crazy.

  17. Swen says:

    There’s a reason they call a riot gun a “riot gun”. You can pick up a good Remington 870 and add an extended magazine tube for not a lot of money. Then stock up on all the buckshot you can afford and add 100 slugs. That should keep your moat monsters well fed.

  18. mongo78 says:

    The left and their co-conspirators in the green movement have been making a full frontal assault on the coal and nuclear industries for almost forty years. Lately they’ve branched out to attacking hydropower and they are well on their way to demonizing natural gas and even, God help us, wind power.

    I’ve been in the electricity bidniz for a quarter-century. We have just about burned through the design margin of the current electric transmission system, most of which dates back to the 70’s or before. Base-load generation that is aging and retiring is going away and won’t be replaced. A big part of our standard of living is fixing to retreat to Third World status, with the approval of 52% of the population, and indifference from the other 48%. I’ve fought the fight long enough that I am now to the point where I hope they get what they want, good and hard.

    I’ve bought a small gas-powered generator. I recommend you all do the same.

  19. mongo78 says:

    /Rant off. Sorry about that.

  20. leigh says:

    We’re good to go with our diesel generator.

    Mongo, my uncle retired from California Edison after 40 years and he’s been saying the same thing for at least 10-15 years.

  21. geoffb says:

    One of the major battles lost was in 1996 and was all election politics. Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was a political ploy to gain votes and payback a major funding source, China.

    The White House claims designation was necessary to protect a fragile and important ecosystem in southwest Utah from mining and development. In particular, the president wanted to include the 1,650-square-mile Kaiparowits Plateau within the monument to save it from an impending mining operation. The Kaiparowits Plateau contains the largest undeveloped coal field in the country and was to be developed by Andalex
    Resources, Inc., which held the leases on 34,000 acres. Most of the paperwork had been completed and the project was on track. Andalex planned on mining 100 to 120 million tons of coal over a 45-year period.

    This would have meant hundreds of jobs, new businesses, and millions of dollars in taxes and royalty revenues for cash-strapped local governments. That didn’t matter to Clinton, who was angling for environmentalist votes.
    […]
    Clinton didn’t mention that the coal he was effectively locking away was a low-sulfur, clean-burning coal called “compliance coal,” so-named because it meets requirements set by the EPA. It is in demand worldwide as a fuel for electric plants. Nor did he mention that one of the only other places in the world where comparable coal is found is Indonesia, the home of Mochtar and James Riady, the Chinese government-connected billionaires who poured millions of dollars into Clinton campaigns in 1992 and 1996.
    […]
    The earlier report revealed that the administration, notably the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, knew that the monument area wasn’t “threatened” or even particularly significant. The Kaiparowits Plateau wasn’t part of the monument considerations until months into the process. The CEQ had been looking at other areas for Clinton to designate, like areas near Arches and Canyonland National Parks and Lake Powell.
    […]
    Babbitt refused to release the Preliminary Draft of the EIS to the committee, claiming such a document is “privileged” because of the “predecisional” nature of the material.

    To obtain a copy the Resources Committee had to pry one loose with a subpoena. This was served on Nov. 12, 1997; the requested documents were ponied up a week later. They include all the notes and correspondence on the project. The present report is based on these documents, in particular, the 561-page PDEIS.

    Here are some of its points and findings:

    “To have at least the appearance of credibility, the president had to point to some sort of threat. As far as the Clinton Administration was concerned, the coal mine fit the bill. After all, in a campaign where image reigned supreme, reality was of little consequence. As the campaign dust settled, a new question arose: was the development of the coal mine actually a threat to justify sealing off 1.7 million acres of southern Utah? The PDEIS makes it clear the answer is no.”
    “The Clinton administration’s own agencies determined after a full review, that between killing the mine and approving it, approval was the ‘preferred alternative.’”
    Scientists and land managers of the BLM concluded that the land that would be affected by the coal mine wasn’t — as Clinton claimed — “the most remarkable land in the world.” Significantly, “its high potential for future development outweighed its low wilderness values.”
    Even if the land were remarkable, “Construction and operation of the proposed project would have no direct, physical impact on any of the wilderness study areas or the potential designation of wilderness areas in the Smoky Mountain area,” according to the BLM.
    In his proclamation statement, Clinton drew attention to alleged “world class paleontological sites”, “important cultural resources” and a “spectacular array of unusual and diverse soils” and “cryptobiotic crusts” — all of which he wanted to protect from the mine. He spoke of a “spectacular array of unusual and diverse soils” and “cryptobiotic crusts” and showed concern for “many different vegetative communities.”
    It was all untrue. The PDEIS reports there was nothing of significance in the area and the mine would have “minor to negligible impact.”

  22. palaeomerus says:

    So did they ever solve that loading problem with the KSG where the pump load only worked with 2.75″ shells? And did they solve the weird jamming problem where you have to repump it get the shell in firing position? And have they ever blown one up so we know for sure that that steel reinforcement plate will protect your head and neck from shrapnel in a bad misfire?

  23. mongo78 says:

    We’re good to go with our diesel generator.

    Excellent. Pays to be prepared.

    Although, if you’re in Southern California like we are, the biggest worry is going to be water. No electricity means no pumps to move the water from the Colorado or the Sierra Nevadas to the population centers.

    Mongo, my uncle retired from California Edison after 40 years and he’s been saying the same thing for at least 10-15 years.

    it’s been obvious for years to anyone who paid attention. don’t have to be an industry insider to see it coming.

  24. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Just think of all the money Enron could have made if they’d have had the entire country to play with, and not just California’s spot market.

  25. SDN says:

    Of course, a generator without fuel is worthless. The One is working on ensuring that, too.

  26. SGTTed says:

    I just love how Obamacrats think shutting down energy production and taxing the crap out of fuel is a winning election strategy. Go Obama!

    They’ve become the Charie Sheen of the political world.

    WINNING!

  27. FX Phillips says:

    Please keep this in mind . The EPA claims the power to regulate CO2 pursuant to the decision in Massachussetts vs the EPA(Scalia has an especially scathing dissent in this debacle). The time frame of the case coincides with the term of then governor Romney which this story seems to support.

    So Mr Romney seems to have backed up his belief in the pseudo science that carbon dioxide, rather than being a naturally occurring gas expelled by every animal on the face of the planet not to mention the planet itself via volcanoes, is somehow, in the relatively small amount expelled by human technology, morphed into a pollutant with a lawsuit to make that particularly unscientific view the law of the land.

    So the next time you look at the sky high amount on you electric bill you can thank that ultra “conservative” W. Mitt Romney for advancing the hoax of anthropogenic global warming through a specious lawsuit.

    Honestly could the RINO establishment have gathered behind a more pathetically compromised candidate?

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