How They Are Turning Off the Lights in America

Watts Up With That? ^ | 11/07/2009 | Edwin X. Berry

[jsh3180]

On October 31, 2009, the once largest aluminum plant in the world will shut down. With it goes another American industry and more American jobs. The Columbia Falls Aluminum Company in Montana will shut down its aluminum production because it cannot purchase the necessary electrical power to continue its operations.

How did this happen in America? America was once the envy of the world in its industrial capability. America’s industrial capacity built America into the most productive nation the world had ever known. Its standard of living rose to levels never before accomplished. Its currency became valuable and powerful, allowing Americans to purchase imported goods at relatively cheap prices.

America grew because of innovation and hard work by the pioneers of the industrial revolution, and because America has vast natural resources. A great economy, as America once was, is founded on the ability to produce electrical energy at low cost. This ability has been extinguished. Why?

Columbia Falls Aluminum negotiated a contract with Bonneville Power Administration in 2006 for Bonneville to supply electrical power until September 30, 2011. But, responding to lawsuits, the 9th US Circuit Court ruled the contract was invalid because it was incompatible with the Northwest Power Act. Therefore, the combination of the Northwest Power Act and a US Circuit Court were the final villains that caused the shutdown of Columbia Falls Aluminum.

But the real reasons are much more complicated. Why was it not possible for Columbia Falls Aluminum to find sources of electricity other than Bonneville?

We need to look no further than the many environmental groups like the Sierra Club and to America’s elected officials who turned their backs on American citizens and in essence themselves, for they too are citizens of this country. These officials bought into the green agenda promoted by the heavily funded environmental groups. Caving to pressure, they passed laws and the environmental groups filed lawsuits that began turning off the lights in America. The dominos stated to fall.

They began stopping nuclear power plants in the 1970’s. They locked up much of our coal and oil resources with land laws. They passed tax credits, which forces taxpayers foot the bill for billionaire investors to save taxes by investing in less productive wind and solar energy projects.

In 1988, the Environmental Protection Agency called a meeting of atmospheric scientists and others with environmental interests. I remember well the meeting I attended in the San Francisco Bay Area. The meeting was in a theater-like lecture room with the seating curved to face the center stage and rising rapidly toward the back of the room. Attending were many atmospheric scientists whom I knew from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Stanford Research Institute and some local colleges.

The room became silent when a man walked up to the lectern. He told us that the next big national problem was global warming. He explained how human carbon dioxide emissions were trapping the earth’s radiation like a greenhouse and causing the atmosphere to heat beyond its normal temperature. He said this will lead to environmental disasters. He finished by saying the EPA will now concentrate its research funding toward quantifying the disasters that would be caused by our carbon dioxide.

The room was silent. I was the first to raise my hand to ask a question, “How can you defend your global warming hypothesis when you have omitted the effects of clouds which affect heat balance far more than carbon dioxide, and when your hypothesis contradicts the paper by Lee in the Journal of Applied Meteorology in 1972 that shows the atmosphere does not behave like a greenhouse?”

He answered me by saying, “You do not know what you are talking about. I know more about how the atmosphere works than you do.”

Not being one to drop out of a fight, I responded, “I know many of the atmospheric scientists in this room, and many others who are not present but I do not know you. What is your background and what makes you know so much more than me?”

He answered, “I know more than you because I am a lawyer and I work for the EPA.”

After the meeting, many of my atmospheric science friends who worked for public agencies thanked me for what I said, saying they would have liked to say the same thing but they feared for their jobs.

And that, my dear readers, is my recollection of that great day when a lawyer, acting as a scientist, working for the federal government, announced global warming.

Fast forward to today. The federal government is spending 1000 times more money to promote the global-warming charade than is available to those scientists who are arguing against it. Never before in history has it taken a massive publicity campaign to convince the public of a scientific truth. The only reason half the public thinks global warming may be true is the massive amount of money put into global-warming propaganda. The green eco-groups have their umbilical cords in the government’s tax funds. Aside from a few honest but duped scientists living on government money, the majority of the alarms about global warming – now called “climate change” because it’s no longer warming – come from those who have no professional training in atmospheric science. They are the environmentalists, the ecologists, the lawyers and the politicians. They are not the reliable atmospheric scientists whom I know.

Nevertheless, our politicians have passed laws stating that carbon dioxide is bad. See California’s AB32 which is based upon science fiction. (For readers who take issue with me, I will be happy to destroy your arguments in another place. In this paper, we focus on the damage to America that is being caused by those promoting the global-warming fraud.)

In the year 2000, America planned 150 new coal-electric power plants. These power plants would have been “clean” by real standards but the Greens managed to have carbon dioxide defined legally as “dirty” and this new definition makes all emitters of carbon dioxide, including you, a threat to the planet. Therefore, using legal illogic, the Sierra Club stopped 82 of these planned power plants under Bush II and they expect it will be a slam-dunk to stop the rest under Obama.

And now you know the real reason the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company had to shut down. America stopped building new power plants a long time ago. There is now no other source where the company can buy energy. Our energy-producing capability is in a decline and it is taking America with it.

I used to belong to the Sierra Club in the 1960’s. It used to be a nice hiking club. In the late 1960’s the Sierra Club began turning its attention toward stopping nuclear power. Then I quit the Sierra Club. It continues to prosper from the many subscribers who think they are supporting a good cause. What they are really supporting is the destruction of America brick by brick. The Sierra Club and similar organizations are like watermelons – green on the outside, red on the inside. They are telling us we have no right to our own natural resources, and in doing so they are sinking America.

Inherent in ecology are three assumptions: “natural” conditions are optimal, climate is fragile, and human influences are bad. Physics makes no such assumptions. By assuming climate is fragile, the global warming supporters have assumed their conclusion. In fact, the climate is not fragile. It is stable. The non-adherence to physical logic in the global-warming camp is what makes many physical scientists say that global warming is a religion.

So we have a new age religion promoted by environmentalists, incorporated into our laws and brainwashed into our people that is now destroying America from the inside.

Like a vast ship, America is taking a long time to sink but each day it sinks a little further. The fearsome day awaits, when America, if not quickly recovered by its real citizens, will tilt its nose into the water to begin a rapid and final descent into oblivion … her many resources saved for whom?

Edwin X Berry, PhD [send him mail] is an atmospheric physicist and certified consulting meteorologist with Climate Physics, LLC in Montana. Visit his website.

[jsh3180]

We're well on our way to a Third World hellhole, run by commies, econuts and the like. More jobs gone, healthcare mandates, on and on. Never would I have dreamed all of this would come to pass so suddenly. In actuality, it's not so sudden, the Malthusian misanthropes have been working for years to bring their agenda to the forefront. It's just all blossoming suddenly.

It reminds me of what Hemingway once wrote "A man goes broke slowly and then all at once". Substitute gubmint" for "man".

It's all getting to be rather disquieting and depressing.

[mrsmel]

It's all getting to be rather disquieting and depressing.

I second that. At least until I remember that one way or another I won't be here when TSHTF. As far as anyone has ever been to tell, America is not a player in prophecy, perhaps we're seeing the beginning of that end.

[Winged Hussar]

It is important to use psychological warfare techniques to demonize the unholy alliance between Obama and fat cat climate profiteers (the enemy against whom hatred is to be directed) and appeal to the working American who forms the backbone of the Democratic Party (the Propaganda Man to whom the propaganda is to appeal). Please feel free to copy, paste, and circulate; don't link, as it uses my bandwidth.

[television is just wrong]

Removing industry from Germany allowed for high unemployment and the takeover of Germany by Adolph Hitler.

How history continues to repeat.

[Waverunner]

Didn’t “The beginning of the end” involve giant locusts from Chicago?

[mrsmel]

I don’t know, is that a movie? I don’t watch movies, at least not those made past, say, 1955 (barring a few musicals from the late Fifties/early Sixties). I hardly watch anything now, I’m just sick and fed up with the whole Hollywood thing.

[American Constitutionalist]

The America that once was,,,, so sad.

[FBD]

“I know more than you because I am a lawyer....”

-well, that’s Congress in a nutshell...
-we get our power from Bonneville, btw...

[Cicero]

Excellent article. Maybe the best single piece I have read on the insanity of fake environmentalism.

[Montanabound]

Thanks for posting. Montana has two dem senators and a dem governor - wonder what they have to say about this. In my future town, the only platinum and palladium ine in the US is facing severe cutbacks because GM broke their contract for these metals for use in catalytic converters. How’s that hope and change working out for you, dems?

[org.whodat]

Goldman has bought the votes for this since they will handle the trades. So go to the source of Cap and Trade.

[mrsmel]

Good idea, but how effective can it be when the “mainstream” media is in the can for Hussein, the left, and socialism? They shut out any opposition, or create strawman arguments that they proceed to effortlessly shoot down (making the right appear futile and shallow), or use sophistry to demonise the right. Our spokesmen aren’t even very effective, it seems the least articulate are the ones who are given airtime.

My one prayer is that the socialist “revolution” being foisted on us will run true to form, and the self-appointed “elites” (including the media) will be the first ones up against the wall. Right now they think they will be players in running things.

[Jeb21]

Bookmark.

[jsh3180]

You refer to the PGM miner Stillwater, I presume. I have bought and sold stock in that company many, many times. One would have to think their future is not too bright in Montana, with the direction of things in the USA.

[sodpoodle]

****It’s just all blossoming suddenly****

No...you have the right metaphor but the wrong timing.

America blossomed in the 20th century -when immigrants came to the US for opportunity to improve their individual lives through their own efforts and hard work. They were hopeful, not hopeless.

Since Cuba & Vietnam we have witnessed immigrants fleeing oppression because they were not willing to fight for freedom in their native lands - and they came to the US where the exceptional succeeded and eagerly assimilated here. More recent immigrants have become enticed & enslaved to a growing *entitlement* mentality, self-segregation and the creeping communism they thought they had left behind. Once a serf, always a serf.

It’s more like *going to seed* in a desert.

[Marie]

One thing that always bothered me about end-times prophecy is that there is one that predicts that *every* Jew will return to Israel and *every* nation will turn against Israel. I never could see how that would happen.

Gradually, Jews from around the globe are returning to Israel, but Jews in America are very comfortable. I couldn’t see a scenario where 13 million American Jews would pack up and bug-out. I couldn’t see how America could ever abandon Israel.

Over the last year, I can see that the writing is on the wall. Both of those things are *very* possible right now.

[Heliand]

We need to sell the Bonneville Power Authority and the TVA to private investors. The Federal Government has no business being in the power generation and distribution business.

[brydic1]

It is time for a general strike though-out the U.S led by the US health-care establishment and followed by small businesses nationwide. Only this kind of action is going to wake up the fools that feed at the trough of government.

[Son House]

Yep, if I ran a State, it would be doing a hustle to get all the business and rich to move in. States that don’t attract wealth now, will never amount to much for decades.

[mrsmel]

Anti-Semitism is already rearing its ugly head in a Islamicised Europe, just decades after the Holocaust. How soon they forget. Muslims are a protected class in America. There are already talking heads on the news shows worrying about a "backlash" against Muslims, when there is not one instance of a Muslim in the military being killed or injured because they're a Muslim, but there is certainly more than one instance of a Muslim in uniform killing "fellow" troops in the name of Islam. Already, just days after the latest murders, they're already attempting to persuade people to forget who are the actual victims here. In our culture of "diversity", it will work. People will be falling over themselves to distance themselves from being "haters" of all that is Muslim, conveniently forgetting that it was a Muslim, in the name of Islam, who killed American troops and civilians. And this is just a few short years after the atrocity of 9/11!!!!

In the light of all this, I can easily see a climate in the near future where American Jews-even those on the left who think they're exempt-will feel uncomfortable in America. If American freedom and liberty, and the economy, go south, that would be added incentive to go to Israel.

[YOUGOTIT]

The left wing Communist and Nazi have taken over the EPA and are on the verge of destruction of our great Nation and there is nothing the idiots in the Government will do about it. Just as the left wing Judges care less about the Constitution and want to destroy the United States. The people who are serving on Juries need to be informed that they have the authority to declare all laws as unconstitutional. But then the EPA and other left wing government agencies do not pass laws then pass dictator commands that need NO jury for finding “We the People” guilty of their dictatorial destruction of this great nation.

[Sherman Logan]

I couldn’t see a scenario where 13 million American Jews would pack up and bug-out.

You are approximately doubling the actual number of Jews in America. The vast majority of whom are really only Jewish in a cultural/ethnic sense.

[Landru]

-well, that’s Congress in a nutshell..."

LOL!!
Yea, sure is. On steroids. LOL

"-we get our power from Bonneville, btw..."

For now.
Might as well gorge on the stuff, Columbia Falls Aluminum ain't gonna need it. LOL

... btw..."

Thought you might, "Columbia River" came to mind.
In any event you have to know they'll go to work in earnest targeting the public consumer market; albeit, much more stealthily so as not attarct attention. Rile to dopes?
Of course not all's lost. *Privileges* may be purchased, ergo granted anytime. For the right price, to the correct people.
No Nostradamus baloney, just guessing. LOL

Here's what I so loved. Knowing full well the former men of America, now mice, wouldn't dare squeek. Check it out:
"After the meeting, many of my atmospheric science friends who worked for public agencies thanked me for what I said, saying they would have liked to say the same thing but they feared for their jobs.

Push to determine if there'll be a push back.
No resistance, push again.
And so it goes, and so its gone. ;^)

[Landru]

Great article, thanks for posting.
This battle commences immediately following consummation of the Health Scare scandal.

WH, thank you also for the great cartoons. Will come in handy for showing the cartoon generation who'll never get their arms around this, otherwise. Will be considerate of your bandwidth. ;^)

[Landru]

"Good idea, but how effective can it be when the 'mainstream' media is in the can for Hussein, the left, and socialism?"

Pain. The entities you've listed cannot assuage the inevitable pain. Pain will awaken many, many peoples.

Did you notice the targeted industries? Coal. Metals (like aluminum). Mining. Trucking. Energy many I cannot think of off the cuff.
Consider: Most --if not all-- are unionized industries.

"Our spokesmen aren’t even very effective, it seems the least articulate are the ones who are given airtime."

LOL
Funny, that. ;^)

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

People will not wake up until we have rolling blackouts in this country and their power bills triple (as they will under cap and tax) or until our unemployment rate is at 20%.

[olliecollie]

The Emirates Aluminium Company is building a massive $5.75billion smelter at Khalifa Port between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and is now throwing their net far and wide to bring in skilled smelter workers from across the world.

[FBD]

Push to determine if there’ll be a push back.
No resistance, push again.
And so it goes, and so its gone.

-Dayum, Lan...you nailed it! -yeah, there's a scene in George Orwell's 1984 that reminds me of this:

---

“Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four?”
Yes.
How many fingers am I holding up?
"Four."
And if the Party says there are not four, but five, then how many?
"Five."
No.
That’s no use. You’re lying.
How many fingers, please?
"Four. What else could I say?
Five, or anything you like. Will you please stop it?
Stop the pain.
How can I help it?
How can I help what I see in front of my eyes?
Two and two makes four."
Sometimes, Winston.
Sometimes they are five, sometimes they are three.
Sometimes they are all of them at once.
Neither the past, nor the present, nor the future...
exists in its own right.
Reality is in the human mind...
not in the individual mind...
which makes mistakes and soon perishes...
but in the mind of the Party...
which is collective and immortal.
- Again. - No.
How many fingers, Winston?
"Four.
Four, I suppose there are four.
"I tried to see five."
"I wish I could."
Which do you wish?
To persuade me that you can see five, or really to see them?
"Really to see them."
Again.
How many, Winston?
"I don’t know."
Better.

No one escapes, Winston. There are no martyrs here.
All the confessions made here are true.
We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us.
As long as he resists us, we never destroy him.
We make him one of ourselves before we kill him.
We make his brain perfect before we blow it out.
And then...
when there is nothing left but sorrow and love of Big Brother...we shall lift you clean out of history.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTFV9w4B0eg

[samsmom]

Get politically active and vote for small-government conservatives. I live in Westchester county in New York. We just voted out a 12 year Democrat County Exec. Our taxes went through the roof with this guy and an Acorn-type organization sued to put low-income housing in some pricey towns and villages. Rather than fight this suit, the county caved. There may be chance that we will vote out the big tax and spend liberals that dominate our local politics. I’m hoping! My town isn’t so fancy. I’m sure we’re targeted to be one of the first in the county with low income housing.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[This_far]

Montana has two dem senators and a dem governor - wonder what they have to say about this. In my future town, the only platinum and palladium ine in the US is facing severe cutbacks because GM broke their contract for these metals for use in catalytic converters. How’s that hope and change working out for you, dems?

The Gov and two Sens opposed the cancellation and worked to prevent it. Of course, you might have stated that the cancellation was OK'd by a bankruptcy judge.

Also, since GM was under Government ownership, i.e. we taxpayers, you make it sound as though we should have continued to pay a higher price for materials for our company????

Additionally, since you intend to "some day" move here, you might keep up with economy -- Stillwater posted a profit in it's last two quarters DESPITE not having the GM contract.

Search: stillwater+profit+2009

Here's the contract link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8146868

[MileHi]

bflr

[This_far]

"...many I cannot think of off the cuff.

Darn near covered it all (again not leaving me much).

Lumber industry has laid off more in the past couple years, noticeably so with the recent decline in housing (imports from Canada and overseas pulp paper -- similar to NH and Brown Paper Mill).

Now, the sawmills are being sold for scrap and the land and even those sales are uncertain.

[ronnied]

the second paragraph says it all,

Its currency became valuable and powerful, allowing Americans to purchase imported goods at relatively cheap prices.

nothing “made in America anymore”

[jsh3180]

For your global warming ping list

[Landru]

"-Dayum, Lan...you nailed it!"

In "Blind Squirrel" mode, today's nut location allocation. LOL

"-yeah, there's a scene in George Orwell's 1984 that reminds me of this:"

Frightening & sickening at the same time.
Been a long time, military I had a similar response.
Maybe because the reality's are similar?
Thanks for the time & formatting etc anyway, my friend. A genuine mensch.

Y'know? I've been searching for a decent clean copy of that film in its original form for some time. No dice. I'm not prone to conspiracies, per se :o), but, I wonder. There're an awful lot of people (at cinema websites, Amazon etc) clamoring for a good, clean copy of the original film, not the newer ergo laundered one.

[dr_lew]

It's all getting to be rather disquieting and depressing.

I'll add baffling. While we're preparing to implement these onerous regulations, China insists on complete exemption from them. Here are two photos taken 13 hours apart by the same satellite camera, today 11/08/09, of Eastern China and the Eastern USA.

[Landru]

>...many I cannot think of off the cuff.
"Darn near covered it all (again not leaving me much)."

LOL!!
Destiny my friend, destiny. LOL
C'mon you always add something and it's always better than anything I'd said.
Old fox. LOL

"Lumber industry has laid off more in the past couple years, noticeably so with the recent decline in housing (imports from Canada and overseas pulp paper -- similar to NH and Brown Paper Mill)."

Excellent point.
Means even more Teamsters: poof! LOL

"Now, the sawmills are being sold for scrap and the land and even those sales are uncertain."

Fascinating.
Makes sense, now.
Lemme aid in connecting the dots to at least some of your above statement.

Have a dear ol' pal. Second generation timber dealer in veneer. He goes to landowners with large tracks of hardwood trees, contracts with 'em to select cut.
Hires the cutters. Truckers. And ultimately deals with setup to convert the virgin logs into all kinds of veneers.
I'm sure you know of the kind I speak, or knew.

Anyhew the plant he'd been dealing with in Boonville, Indiana one day upped & closed. No reason.
So now he's dealing with the next closest outfit, somewhere around the St. Louis area.

That place one day 3 or so years ago (IIRC) ups & closes, too.
So now he's stuck & to make matters worse? Virtually every major furniture manufacturer located in North Carolina responsible for 100% of his business? Also slowly closing in direct proportion to a skyrocketing Asian based demand. Shezam!

The NC furniture concerns actually seemed to be closing, being tapered out, just as Chinese imported furniture imports were ramping up, also. Hmmmmmm.

He was forced --out of survival-- to deal with the Chinese. Just as everyone else had. Just as all the business bug brains were advising hell? Just as various governmental agencies suggested? It's "free market Capitalism" in-action! Better hurry & jump on. Sure don't wanna miss out! LOL

At first all was fine. Checks came in a timely manner and everyone, including him, were paid.
But ever-so-slowly the checks, they began getting awfully slow. 'Til one week they ceased coming, altogether.

This man has a wife. A family w/ 2 kids and all it implies. He's *concerned*?

Jumps on a jet for mainland China.
Wants a face-to-face with the manufacturer's reps etc.
As he's walking through the plant, he observes they're making their own veneers!! :o)

The machineS the Chinese concern & their slave labor operate? Why the exact same machines he'd observed --many times-- in the St. Louis area facility. The equipment still had spec labels on 'em with StL company's name!! LOL

"Mark" went into bankruptcy this past March. Lost everything & I mean everything. Maybe his marriage too given the stress this poor guy (~38) & his lovely wife are under? That, remains to be seen.

How's that for a tale finishing yours with some details? The same story's being played-out from coast-to-coast every single day.

Rome, my friend, in many ways is burning. ;^)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

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[Diana in Wisconsin]

“How did this happen in America?”

For some reason the phrase, “while good men stood by and did nothing” keeps ringing in my ears. *SIGH*

[This_far]

Well and nicely done, as usual (but also unfortunately).

I too know of those who have dealt with the Chinese, either by choice or necessity. Some who contracted for their equipment to be manufactured there, found their business taken by Chinese manufactures of “very similar” machines (of course at extremely less cost).

Some felt protected by their having license agreements or patents on their machinery.

We both have used the Rome analogy. (such flagrant disregard of EPA regulations cannot continue to go on unnoticed though... take care)