Posted on 03/19/2008 10:56:51 PM PDT by neverdem
Utility executives in Kansas were shocked last fall when a state environmental official rejected two coal-fired power plants because of the millions of tons of carbon-dioxide emissions they could produce. In a state where coal generates 73 percent of the electricity, the pro-coal forces were unable to work their will.
That ineffectiveness will be underscored as early as Friday if Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, as expected, vetoes an effort by the Kansas State Legislature to ensure the plants are approved. A handful of lawmakers seeking a new energy policy are blocking the attempt to override.
The struggle over those plants is an example of a growing trend in climate-change politics. In the absence of clear federal mandates for emissions from smokestack industries, states that have been proving grounds for new environmental approaches to energy are becoming battlegrounds as well.
“There are certainly battles happening all over the nation,” said Steve Clemmer, the Clean Energy Program research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In Kansas and Washington State, the battles are over individual plants. Other fights, as in California, are over how to structure carbon controls — essentially, who will have to pay, and how much. Some, as in Minnesota, are over how much renewable energy must be created and what forms are appropriate.
And that list does not take into account major battles between the states and the federal government, exemplified by the Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to let California control greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles.
What to do about the greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels — particularly the coal that fuels the lion’s share of electricity in 25 states — is a question Washington has largely dodged. But politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The national gridlock over climate-change policy has led to an ever-increasing number of state initiatives...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Do Kansans really have the desire to freeze in the darK — of their own volition?
Is there any chance Sebelius will get beaten in 2010?
File this under the title of the war on wealth. Make no mistake, they want us starving to death in caves.
Now that Louisiana is rolling in oil money, we should make Louisiana give back all that money we gave them after Katrina.
I have zero sympathy for morons. Train wreck waiting ot happen. Let ‘em freeze.
I don't know. I just hope all the global warming nutjobs meet the political fate that they so richly deserve.
bump
“I have zero sympathy for morons. Train wreck waiting to happen. Let ‘em freeze.”
So, lighten up Francis.
Me neither, let them read by candlelight.
PS-Does Kansas have any forests to cut down for firewood for winter heating? Oh, didn’t think so. /sarc
Another reason I never vote for female candidates
That is my default position. I operate from the belief that no women are competent in high governmental office
From there I make a few exceptions
Not that the guys are very good these days but the women are so much worse like Pelosi, Hilary, Sebelius. Condi Rice, Madeline Albright
Mr Crist. - our erstwhile republican governor - did the same thing in Florida. We used to have an energy surplus that FPL regularly sold to keep our power bills down... How much longer will that last? I guess we can build oil plants to burn the CHINESE OIL THAT WILL BE DRILLED OFF THE KEYS IN CUBAN WATERS.
Of course we won’t drill... It’s banned.
Please Mr’ McCain — Make Crist your running mate - maybe then we can get a governor instead of a pandering politician... and find a cabinet post for Mexican Mel Martinez as well - see above
If I were working for these power companies the first thing I would do before the price of electricity skyrockets is put the blame at the feet of those who made this happen: The Legislature and Governor. I would try to work up resentment by targeting those who refuse to override the Governor’s veto. People really do need to be made aware as to the reasons why they can no longer afford to pay their bills.
When we are all sitting in the cold and in the dark, many will kiss the hand of government that comes to rescue them. This is the plan.
Yep, and the Kansas Gooberner should be the very first one to have the lights switched off when electricity supplies run short. What a nitwit......and yet another glaring example of how Democrats get the gubmint they deserve.....
After the first brown-out, all this carbon crap will be thrown out the window in a flurry of hand wringing and finger pointing.
Fear not.
While all the noise is being made about wind or solar or garbage piles, Nuclear plants are very quietly being designed and will be on line before the brownouts.
No, the fingers will all be pointed at the "evil utility companies" (TM). The pols and enviro-hustlers who will have caused it will not take the blame. They never do.
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