Posted on 07/08/2009 6:25:03 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
When people in the coal business talk about "the valley of death," they are referring to a grim place not located near any mine. It is an economic chasm that the industry fears awaits it if the Senate approves climate legislation similar to what passed the House.
Although the House bill includes some help for coal, it also creates incentives for utilities to move away from polluting fuels. Industry advocates and independent analysts say that leaves coal with few options for a sustainable future.
"Unless they come up with a breakthrough technology to capture carbon and store it, coal is dying," said Kenneth Green, resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "If this [bill] does what they want it to do, I would say coal is on its way out."
That is what coal hopes it can prevent with its latest lobbying push.
Passage of the House climate and energy bill kicked off renewed lobbying efforts, with industry advocates urging senators to produce legislation that would slow down the pace of efforts to cap carbon emissions. Environmentalists are pushing back, seeking to prevent a weakening of proposals in the House bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There are hundreds of coal-burning power plants distributed all over the country. What are people going to think when their lights only come on a few hours a day? Bush’s fault?
We can go back to living in caves if this Sh*t gets through. You won’t be able to afford enough electricity to heat a bathtub of water.
Which is the goal here folks. Killing coal will set us back 100 years. America will be a gigantic Cuba. Just what the communists want.
Quit calling Hussein and the Dems socialists. They are not. They are communists.
That is Obama’s stated plan.
Because America has centuries of coal.
They should call cap-and-trade the Arab Sheik Enrichment Act.
They are going to think they had better do what their masters in Washington tell them, so they can get their electricity rationing coupons and feed their families.
And I mean that quite literally.
Once the power plants are gone, coal has a bright future since it will heat our homes, power the steam engines that drive our mighty locomotives, etc.
Then, one day after a century of suffering, an innovator will come along and give us ELECTRICITY. It will be brought to our homes and businesses through a web of wires, and the thick black clouds of soot that cover our cities will go away and there will be prosperity.
Then, a century later, some new asshole will come along and make a movie out of a PowerPoint presentation and the cycle will begin again...
Let’s just let all that coal sit in the ground for a few hundred years until we really need it. No point wasting it now. After all, we can produce lots of dilitihium energy crystals and sit in a circle chanting kumbaya until then.
Probably so.
We have enough coal to last us 500 years at today’s rate of use. why would anyone with a grain of common sense want us to stop using it and take a chance some friggin windmill will make up for it’s production.
2 Billion dollars of which Pickens bought and is now trying to sell after he found they wouldnt be profitable.
They are bastards.
Something like 40% of our electric generation is from coal fired plants and we are going to walk away from it.
We are the Saudi Arabia of coal and we are going to lock it all up.
Thousands in the coal industry will become unemployed.
Sheer madness.
We need to clean up in 2012 and bring normalcy back from the brink. If the coal companies fall into the abyss, it may be too late to repair the damage.
It is political suicide.
When was the last time we saw states pass legislation aimed directly at negating/defying/reversing a federal law?
Several states have done this now, or are in the process of it. If senators are too ignorant to understand the significance of this “warning” from the states, then by all means... LET THEM PASS IT!... but make sure it is clear to all who opposed it.
Then why did all the coal miners vote for Hussein and the Dem's?
Even worse are the morons in coal producing states that support this crap from their elected officials. Tack on top of that the morons that use coal produced electricity and you really have a dilemma. Liberals are brain damaged, there is no other explanation.
Here in Pa the numbnuts voted for Obama even though they had been warned about him taxing the coal countys out of business.
Coal is 50% of US Electricity = ~ 500 GiggaWatts.
That amount of electricity CANNOT be replaced by wind and solar .... and all the politicians know it!
The sole purpose of CAP & Trade is one thing: To reap tax benefits. Politicians do not want the coal plants replaced with wind, solar or nuclear as there would be no TAX REVENUE!
End of story!
Wasting it? It would take hundreds of years, or more, to “run out” of coal.
It’s absurd to think burning coal harms the climate in any bad way. If it does, SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE.
“They can build their coal plants if they want, but it’ll be very expensive and I’ll bankrupt their companies” - B. Obama sometime early in 2008 - glad some of those being threatened are finally waking up......
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