Tag Archives: Coal

Do You Like Having Electricity 24 Hours A Day?

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Years ago, I remember talking to someone from another country who was very impressed that Americans had electricity for 24 hours every day. In her country they thought four or five hours of electricity a day was good. That was a foreign concept for me. I would like it to remain a foreign concept.

On Sunday, The New York Post posted an article about President Biden’s plans for American energy.

The article reports:

The Biden administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week’s COP28 conference in Dubai that it says will help save the planet from climate change.

The policies aren’t likely to change the planet’s temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the 21st-century American industrial economy as we know it.

First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States.

This comes on the heels of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants to comply with.

The article also notes comments from the Vice-President:

Vice President Kamala Harris trumpeted the next day new rules to “sharply reduce methane from the oil and natural gas industry.”

The administration calls methane a “super-pollutant” that it wants to eliminate because it’s “many times more potent than carbon dioxide.”

But methane is effectively a hydrocarbon that comes from natural gas.

Eliminating methane is a de facto ban on natural gas power plants.

Here is the most sinister part of this story that no one in the Biden administration is telling you: Eradicating coal and natural gas plants will ravage America’s electric power capacity.

These regulations will cause rolling blackouts and brownouts across the country, much like we’ve already seen in California — America’s forerunner of radical anti-fossil fuel policies.

The lights will go out intermittently, and home heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer will have to be turned off or rationed.

Without gas and coal plants, hospitals, schools, the internet, construction projects and factories will be routinely shut down when unreliable alternative energy sources like wind and solar power aren’t delivering enough juice.

Upward of 60% of America’s electric power generation will go away — and soon.

Does anyone want to make a wager as to whether or not the mucky-mucks who are making these policies will continue to have electricity 24 hours a day while the rest of us have electricity for maybe eight hours a day?

Who Are The Zero Net Carbon Rules For?

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Obviously the zero net carbon rules are not for the people who recently attended the Climate Control Summit.

On Tuesday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted the following:

JOSH HAMMER: A climate summit to turn you green with nausea: Kamala and Kerry flew on SEPARATE jets… the host is a Sultan oil boss… and it’s all held in Dubai – where they air condition the desert. What a net zero charade!

Keep in mind that these are the people who want to take away our gas stoves and air-conditioning and tell us to eat bugs while they jet around the world and eat Colby beef.

The article notes:

The United Nations‘ 28th climate change conference is melting down faster than an iceberg in the Arctic.

It’s a collection of the world’s rich and influential who’ve set out to save all of humanity by getting rid of fossil fuels. But apparently, the engines of this international powwow don’t run well on bull manure.

John Kerry, the failed presidential candidate now moonlighting as President Biden’s ‘special presidential envoy for climate’, is leading the American delegation for the COP28 summit.

True to form, Kerry, our Bay State plutocrat, reportedly jetted in on a carbon-belching private plane.

And Kamala Harris, our flailing vice president, deemed the meeting urgent enough to justify the greenhouse gases necessary to fuel Air Force Two and fly her to the lavish affair as well.

Would it be too much to ask them to ride share?

The article also notes:

Kerry is a hypocrite of world-historical proportions. He is a fabulously wealthy man (through marriage) who flies around the world aboard gas-guzzling planes to useless junkets to admonish the plebeians who drive to work in gas-guzzling cars. And to top it all off, this weekend in Dubai, Kerry had the chutzpah to preach that all coal plants must be shuttered posthaste.

His reason? Coal plants are killing people daily.

You know what else kills people daily, and on an order of magnitude considerably larger than climate change? Poverty. And there is no more time-proven, efficient method for alleviating poverty than ensuring the widespread availability of affordable energy.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The author makes a number of very important points.

A Coup We Never Knew

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On January 6, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at The Daily Signal about the changes we have seen in America over the last two years.

The article begins:

Did someone or something seize control of the United States?

What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did President Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?

Since when did money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?

When did clean-burning, cheap, and abundant natural gas become the equivalent to dirty coal? How did prized natural gas that had granted America’s wishes of energy self-sufficiency, reduced pollution, and inexpensive electricity become almost overnight a pariah fuel whose extraction was a war against nature? Which lawmakers, which laws, which votes of the people declared natural gas development and pipelines near criminal?

Was it not against federal law to swarm the homes of Supreme Court justices, to picket and to intimidate their households in efforts to affect their rulings? How then with impunity did bullies surround the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas, furious over a court decision on abortion? How could these mobs so easily throng our justices’ homes, with placards declaring “Off with their d—s”?

Since when did Americans create a government Ministry of Truth? And on whose orders did the FBI contract private news organizations to censor stories it did not like and writers whom it feared?

How did we wake up one morning to new customs of impeaching a president over a phone call? Of the speaker of the House tearing up the State of the Union address on national television? Of barring congressional members from serving on their assigned congressional committees?

That is just the beginning. Please follow the link to read the entire article.

The article concludes:

Were Americans ever asked whether their universities could discriminate against their sons and daughters based on their race? How did it become physically dangerous to speak the truth on a campus? Whose idea was it to reboot racial segregation and bias as “theme houses,” “safe spaces,” and “diversity”? How did that happen in America?

How did a virus cancel the Constitution? Did the lockdowns rob us of our sanity? Or was it the woke hysteria that ignited our collective madness?

We are beginning to wake up from a nightmare to a country we no longer recognize, and from a coup we never knew.

It’s time to join or to start a local grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the rights and structure defined in the U.S. Constitution. We have a number of organizations like that in eastern North Carolina. Hopefully there are some where you live.

Who Wins In The War On Coal?

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On Wednesday, The Conservative Review posted an article about the war on coal and natural gas that is being waged by the Biden administration.

The article reports:

Oil is king when it comes to energy policy, but coal and natural gas are just as important. In the case of all three fossil fuels, Western governments have engaged in an all-out war on exploration, production, and generation, banned Russia’s exports of those products, and then gave a monopoly to China, inducing the worst possible outcome for the American consumer and our national security.

Despite the two-decade war on coal by the climate Nazis, coal is still the largest source of electricity around the globe and is the second-largest source of energy in general. In the U.S., coal was once king, composing roughly half of our electricity source just 15 years ago, but has dropped precipitously because of the natural gas boom and because of destructive eco policies. Yet it still accounts for 21% of our electricity source, so shocks to the system are going to harm American consumers.

The article includes the following chart showing the rise in the price of thermal coal:

So who is making money on the increase?

The article notes:

…Given that coal accounts for 35% of global electricity use and Europe gets 70% of its coal from Russia, the coal crisis is now worse than the oil crisis. And guess who stands to benefit? China, of course. Thanks to the disdain for our own coal by our own politicians, the evil communist regime is now the global champion of coal production and exports.

America is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but the environmentalists are not willing to let us produce coal. Instead other countries use the same amount of coal as they would if we produced it, except it’s not from us.

The article includes the following chart showing the changes in coal production:

The article concludes:

Between the war on leasing and restrictions on fracking, transportation, pipelines, and export terminals, this administration is stifling the cleanest, most efficient fuel that could lower prices of electricity and serve as a bulwark against China and Russia. Thus, LNG prices remain unnaturally high because the climate Nazis would rather we feel the pain than actually end dependence on bad actors.

Much as with COVID, where we saw a government that cried over the human death toll but downright declared war on anyone who would treat the virus early, those who complain about the energy crisis are the ones inducing it. Crushing the American consumer is not a bug of their plan, it is the primary feature, greasing the skids for the next step in the “Great Reset.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article.

 

 

 

This Is Truly Sad

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Yesterday The Washington Examiner posted an article about a recent comment by former Vice-President Joe Biden.

The article reports:

2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden said miners need to find “jobs of the future” when talking about transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels.

“Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well,” Biden said Monday during a campaign event in New Hampshire. “Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for god’s sake!”

On Sunday, Biden also said he wanted to throw fossil fuel executives in prison for damaging the environment.

“Put them in jail,” he said. “I’m not joking about this.”

The comment came after the former vice president said that there would not be a single new coal plant made in the U.S. earlier this month. During the December Democratic debate, Biden said he was willing to end hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fossil fuel industry.

I can’t believe that anyone who listens to what he says would vote for this man.

It Is About Time Someone Said This Loudly And Clearly

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Donald Trump gave a speech yesterday in Dimondale, Michigan. I don’t know how much of it the mainstream media will report, so I am posting some highlights. The full text can be found at Heavy.com.

Here are a few highlights:

…But to achieve this New American Future, we must break free from the bitter failures of the past – and reject the same insiders telling us the same old lies.

No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton’s policies than African-Americans. If Hillary Clinton’s goal was to inflict pain on the African-American community, she couldn’t have done a better job.

Tonight, I am asking for the vote of every African-American citizen in this country who wants a better future.

The inner cities of our country have been run by the Democratic Party for 50 years. Their policies have produced only poverty, joblessness, failing schools, and broken homes.

It is time to hold Democratic Politicians accountable for what they have done to these communities. It is time to hold failed leaders accountable for their results, not just their empty words.

Look at what the Democratic Party has done to the city of Detroit.

Forty percent of Detroit’s residents live in poverty. Half of all Detroit residents do not work.

Detroit tops the list of Most Dangerous Cities in terms of violent crime.

This is the legacy of the Democrat politicians who have run this city. This is the result of the policy agenda embraced by Hillary Clinton.

The only way to change results is to change leadership. We can never fix our problems by relying on the same politicians who created our problems in the first place.

…By contrast, the one thing every item in Hillary Clinton’s agenda has in common is that it takes jobs and opportunities from African-American workers. Her support for open borders. Her fierce opposition to school choice. Her plan to massively raise taxes on small businesses. Her opposition to American energy. And her record of giving our jobs away to other countries.

…Hillary Clinton’s plan would bring in an estimated 620,000 refugees in her first term – at a lifetime benefit cost of some $400 billion dollars, according to the U.S. Senate Immigration Subcommittee. She wants to be America’s Angela Merkel. By the way, for the price of supporting 1 refugee in the United States, we could support 12 in a safe zone in the Middle East.

The improved refugee screening standards I have proposed will save countless billions of dollars. We will invest a portion of the money saved in a jobs program for inner city youth.

The African-American community has given so much to this country. They’ve fought and died in every war since the Revolution. They’ve lifted up the conscience of our nation in the long march for Civil Rights. They’ve sacrificed so much for the national good. Yet, nearly 4 in 10 African-American children still live in poverty, and 58% of young African-Americans are not working.

…Michigan lost more than 1 in 4 of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA. As you know, NAFTA was signed by President Bill Clinton. It was supported by Hillary Clinton. Right here, in this community, you’ve lost 1 in 7 manufacturing jobs since Bill Clinton put China into the World Trade Organization – another Hillary Clinton-backed deal. Detroit lost more than 1 in 3 manufacturing jobs following the NAFTA and WTO agreements supported by my opponent.

No industry has been hurt more by Hillary Clinton’s policies than the car industry. It’s been a total disaster.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, before NAFTA went into effect, there were 285,000 auto workers in Michigan. Today, that number is only 160,000.

In 2014, GM announced plans to double its investments in Mexico by 2018.

In April 2016, Ford Motor Company announced plans to invest $1.6 billion constructing an auto plant in Mexico.

That same month, Fiat Chrysler announced 1,300 layoffs. Lear Corporation launched plans to build two new factories in Mexico.

…Look at the world before and after she became Secretary of State.

Pre-Hillary, in early 2009, Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence.

Libya was stable.

Syria was under control.

The group we know today as ISIS was close to being extinguished.

Iran was being choked by sanctions.

Now, fast-forward to present time.

After Hillary, here is what the world looks like:

Iraq is in total chaos.

Syria is in the midst of a disastrous civil war and a refugee crisis now threatens Europe and the United States.

ISIS has been unleashed onto the entire world.

Iran – the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism – has been put on the path to nuclear weapons, and was given a $400 million ransom payment, something which has now been confirmed after President Obama’s lies.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and terrorism.

America deserves a better legacy. All of you deserve a better future. I am the change agent. Hillary Clinton is the defender of the status quo.

This speech reminds us of our recent history. It also highlights the fact that President Obama’s Administration has not been good for either the black or white community. The only people who have truly prospered under President Obama are the cronies that have been subsidized by the government–for example the green energy companies (some of which have gone bankrupt). President Obama has forced the closing of coal mines, and indications are that Hillary Clinton will continue in the same direction.

I have previously stated (and will continue to do so in the future) that Donald Trump is not a perfect candidate, but in this election cycle we do not have perfection. If he does what he says he will do in the speech he made yesterday, America will be better off. It is high time that Americans look at what forty or more years of Democrat control has done to some of our cities. If cities are a laboratory to experiment with economic policies, it is obvious that the economic policies applied have failed. I realize that there are multiple reasons for that, but the governing party has to share a large part of the responsibility. It is time for a change in our country and time for a change in our major cities. Donald Trump represents that change.

Speaking The Truth By Accident

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Investor’s Business Daily posted an article yesterday about statements made by Lena Moffitt, who runs the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign. The Sierra Club has been very active in ‘the war on coal,’ causing thousands of middle-class Americans to lose their jobs.

The article reports:

Here is what Lena Moffitt, who runs the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, says: “‎We have moved to a very clear and firm and vehement position of opposing gas. Our board recently passed a policy that we oppose any new gas-fired power plants. We also have a policy opposing fracking on our books.”

The article points out:

…natural gas is a clean-burning fuel that is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and real pollutants, too. There have been no reported cases of water contamination from fracking technology, as even the Obama administration has admitted. But facts don’t matter much in this debate.

…In the same interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence, she admitted: “We are doing everything we can to bring the same expertise that we brought to taking down the coal industry and coal-fired power in this country to taking on gas in the same way.”

‎”I look forward to seeing the same success brought to taking down gas plants to ensure that we’re actually moving to a 100% clean energy future,” she continued. “That is the one Sierra Club policy that we are all working toward: getting us to 100% clean energy, which, of course, would include no new gas.”

It would be interesting to know exactly who funds the Sierra Club. Their war on American energy is not helpful either to the American economy or the American national security. Although the idea of sustainable green energy is attractive, it is not yet commercially (or governmentally) feasible. When we discover a perpetual motion machine, we may find the green energy solution for power right next to it. I’m not holding my breath.

Spain attempted a number of years ago to switch from carbon fuel to green energy. The policy nearly bankrupted the country, and Spain was forced to go back to fossil fuels. As of right now, green energy is not reliable twenty-four hours a day–it has to be supplemented. Therefore, you still have to have fossil-fueled energy plants. The war on American energy is a really destructive idea–it hurts the middle-class Americans that politicians keep saying they want to help.

Is This Something We Want?

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This video was posted on YouTube yesterday:

There is such a thing as clean coal. We need to look at the economics in using coal as an energy source and the way that we can make the use of coal more environmentally safe. However, to shut down the coal industry is to throw the baby out with the bath water. The position Hillary Clinton voiced is extreme and is not good for America.

The ObamaAdministration’s War On Coal Continues

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CBN News is reporting today that thousands of America‘s coal workers gathered in Washington, D.C., yesterday to protest new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that will shut down the coal industry in America.

The article reports:

Coal worker Jim Dailer of Wheeling, W.Va., complained, “They’ve tightened down regulation after regulation down through the years and ended up with putting us out of business pretty much.”
 
More than 200 coal-fired plants have already announced they’re closing.  Dailer said it will be some 350 by the end of next year. 
 
These coal miners, workers and officials rallied on Capitol Hill because only Congress or the courts can stop the EPA.
 
“What we’re trying to do is reach the hearts and minds of the people who are in those halls in front of me,” Horton said as he looked up at the Capitol building.  “To get them to understand that coal is much more than an energy source.  It’s people.”

Just for the record, I am not in favor of air pollution–but I do believe that the government is quite capable of over-regulating. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2012 coal provided 37 percent of the electricity generated in America. At the present time, there is not a reliable ‘green’ source of energy to replace that power. Until the ‘green’ energy industry is more reliable and more economical, we need to leave our coal plants open.

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The War On Coal Goes Global

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Yesterday Steven Hayward at Power Line posted an article reporting that the World Bank voted yesterday to cease funding coal-fired power plants in developing nations.

The World Bank not only ruled that it would not fund coal-fired power to developing nations, but also not fund energy projects in any nation that uses other funds to finance coal power. Coal is a cheap form of energy that in the past has helped countries progress from third-world nations into participating and contributing members of the world economy.

The article reports:

The bank’s sweeping “Directions for the World Bank Group’s Energy Sector” emphasizes bringing energy access to the estimated 1.2 billion people living without electricity and 2.8 billion without modern cooking facilities. It promises financial solutions for the most feasible energy options in poor, fragile and conflict-ridden states. It embraces renewable energy, energy efficiency and off-grid technology while also vowing to increase assistance for natural gas and large hydropower development.

The World Bank has just decided that it doesn’t want any more countries to develop. This ruling is not practical for countries that need cheap energy now.

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The Use Of Coal Has A Positive Impact On The Environment???

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Steven Hayward posted an article at Power Line today about the increase in the use of coal to generate electricity. The article includes the following chart:

It seems that the environmentalists are caught between a rock and a hard place–they don’t approve of coal and they don’t approve of fracking, which results in cheap natural gas that generates electricity in a more environmentally friendly way than coal.

The article points out that India regards the use of coal to generate electricity as its path to prosperity. Even worse, coal-generated electricity has cut pollution in India because it reduces the use of small wood-fueled cookstoves.  According to a recent global health study, small wood-fueled cookstoves are the largest environmental health threat in developing nations.

So where are we? Environmentalists are doing their best to shut down coal plants in America, despite the fact that the global warming scare is pretty much over. Developing countries are using coal because it creates less of an environmental problem than small wood-fueled cookstoves. Natural gas, the clean alternative to coal in electricity production is out of favor with environmentalists because it is obtained by fracking. So what are we supposed to do?

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Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

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Yesterday Hot Air posted an article about the level of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. It seems that carbon dioxide emissions fell once again in 2012, bringing the United States’ emissions levels down to a two-decade low.

This is the chart:

Graph of annual light bulb sales, as explained in the article text

So what is responsible for the drop in carbon dioxide emissions– the increased use of natural gas obtained by hydraulic fracturing. This has got to drive the environmentalists nuts.

The article at Hot Air reports:

The largest drop in emissions in 2012 came from coal, which is used almost exclusively for electricity generation (see figure below). During 2012, particularly in the spring and early summer, low natural gas prices led to competition between natural gas- and coal-fired electric power generators. Lower natural gas prices resulted in reduced levels of coal generation, and increased natural gas generation—a less carbon-intensive fuel for power generation, which shifted power generation from the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel (coal) to the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel (natural gas).

The article concludes:

It’s yet another piece of evidence that environmental quality and economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive, even on a large scale; the innovations, efficiencies, and technological developments that come with an advanced economy can be good for both humanity and the planet.

The comment above represents the kind of balance we need more of in the environmental movement.

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The Layoffs Begin

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Breitbart.com is reporting that Boeing has announced a 30 percent cut in managerial positions in the company.

The article reports:

Boeing says the cuts are not part of the president’s $500 billion in defense cuts, set to take effect in January 2013. But this is hard to believe, particularly since other defense contractors, like Lockheed Martin, have been warning that the president’s military cuts were going to lead to job losses in defense.

In fact, in September, Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors were threatening to go ahead and lay their workers off before the election so voters could see the impact of Obama’s cuts, but Obama’s team talked them out of it. At the time, the Obama administration told them it would be “inappropriate” to lay the workers off ahead of the election.

Yesterday KSL.com reported that West Ridge Mine has laid off 102 employees as a result of the re-election of President Obama.

The article reports:

In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down “204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014″ and for drastically reducing the market for coal.

“There is nowhere to sell our coal, and when we can, the market prices are far lower,” the statement said. “Without markets, there can be no coal mines and no coal jobs.”

Let’s hope that as the war on coal continues that at least we will be able to develop other domestic energy resources through fracking.

There is a list of layoffs at The Blaze. They include such companies as Westinghouse, the Providence Journal, Energizer, Research in Motion Limited (manufactures Blackberry smartphones), Lightyear Network Solutions, Hawker Beechcraft, CVPH Medical Center, U.S. Cellular, Momentive Performance Materials, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS), Husqvarna AB (HUSQB), Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oce North America, Inc., Darden Restaurants, and United Blood Services Gulf South region. Follow the link to the article to see the additional companies laying people off. The website has updated the story.

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President Obama’s War On Domestic Energy Production

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On Thursday, Forbes Magazine posted an article about the energy policy of the Obama Administration. The article uses the term ‘mean green’ to describe the President’s policies.

The article reports:

You know who the “mean greens” are. They are those curmudgeonly misanthropes who begrudge and bewail humankind’s economic progress and the high standards of living attained in the modern era.

The article reminds us of one of President Obama’s statements on life in America:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes, you know, 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that every other country is going to say OK … [when we] keep using 25 percent of the world’s energy.”

It’s interesting that the President who made that statement has no problem doing those things. It’s another case of “rules for thee, but not for me.”

Some of the facts included in the article:

Chu’s (Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy) most famous policy goal is encapsulated in his statement, “Somehow we have to figure out a way to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

In his first week as president, Obama rescinded a Bush executive order that permitted drilling on the continental shelf. A few weeks later, Salazar unilaterally canceled 77 oil and gas leases in Utah.

Team Obama continued the assault on domestic oil development, first by adding two million more acres to the 107 million acres of designated wilderness to block the extraction of fossil fuels from those tracts.

EPA regulations already have triggered the announced closures of 175 coal-fired generators over the next few years, plus the cancellation of plans to build new, cleaner plants. Having wounded the coal industry and curbed domestic oil exploration.

…natural gas emits significantly less carbon dioxide than coal and oil, … the mean greens have declared war against natural gas. Obama’s allies in the Sierra Club have headed the public relations campaign, launching a plan that they call “Beyond Natural Gas.”

The Sierra report announces, “We’re going to be preventing new gas plants from being built wherever we can.” More quietly, White House energy aide Heather Zichal followed up with an announcement this summer that Salazar’s Interior Department will unveil new rules regulating “fracking” sometime after the election.

Can America afford four more years of the Obama Administration? Note that the new rules regarding fracking will be announced sometime after the election.

 

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Under The Radar In The Obama Administration

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One of the aspects of the Obama Administration has been the increase in the power of the Environmental Protection Agency. That increase in power and regulations is having an impact on the coal industry.

CBN News reported today that Alpha Natural Resources announced it is shutting down eight mines in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. This will result in the loss of 1,200 jobs.

The article reports:

“Since the Obama administration has been in, things have been tough on the coal economy,” one West Virginia coal miner said. “It just keeps going downhill, and without it West Virginia will be one state that won’t make it.”

In July 2012, Breitbart.com quoted a statement by President Obama about coal:

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

…So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It’s just that it will bankrupt them.

It seems that this is one promise the President has kept.

CBN News reports:

Miners owners argue they can’t afford to make the necessary changes in the amount of time they’re given. That has resulted in layoffs or mines simply shutting down.

If you are naive enough to believe that this does not affect you, think again. Between one-third and half of America’s electricity comes from coal. If too many coal mines shut down, the amount of electricity available to Americans will decrease. Coal plants need to be given the amount of time they need to convert to clean coal. The Obama Administration’s coal policy is hurting jobs and will eventually hurt consumers of electricity.

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The Evolving Continues

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Today’s Washington Examiner posted an article on President Obama’s evolving positions.

This week we saw the President evolve in his position on gay marriage. I am sure that the fact that many of the major contributors to his campaign threatened to withhold their contributions unless he came out in support of gay marriage had nothing to do with the President’s change in position. Well, now the President’s position on coal is evolving. It’s not about the donations–it’s about the results of the Democrat primary in West Virginia. Keith Russell Judd, a convicted felon, serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Beaumont, Texas, won 42.28 percent of the vote — or 49,490 votes — compared with President Obama with 57.72 percent or or 67,562 votes.

West Virginia depends on coal for its economy. Since the advent of supposed man-made global warming and the scare tactics that go with the theory, the Obama Administration has declared war on coal. This week, coal declared war on the Obama Administration. Coal-generated power plants are being targeted by the Obama Administration to be shut down–raising electric rates for everyone because there is as of yet no ‘green’ alternative to coal-fired plants.

The article at the Washington Examiner reports:

The Hill reported that he showed a screenshot of the Obama campaign’s website that noted every other kind of fuel–but coal–in their all-of-the-above program.

By this morning, presto, “clean coal” is where “fuel efficiency” used to be. Clean coal refers to technology used to filter emissions.

West Virginia has maintained stable coal production and has shipped much of its coal to China, where coal-powered electric plants open every week. The people of West Virginia were simply voting according to the best interests of their state. It seems as if the President is now beginning to understand what those interests might be.

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