a:1:{s:15:"field_blog_body";a:1:{i:0;a:2:{s:5:"value";s:4437:"The planet is saved! The planet is saved! From the <a href="http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20111221/NEWS01/112210320/New-rules-shutter-some-coal-plants">Lansing State Journal</a>:<br />
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<div>WASHINGTON - More than 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to shut down and an additional 36 might have to close because of new federal air pollution regulations, according to an Associated Press survey.<br />
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The EPA has estimated 14.7 gigawatts, enough power for more than 11 million households, will be retired from the power grid in the 2014-15 period when the two new rules take effect.</div>
</blockquote>I believe this goes hand-in-hand with the liberals' desire to use rainbows and unicorns as our nation's primary means of generating electricity. I can just see a typical left-wing meeting at the Department of Energy:
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Clueless liberal #1:&nbsp;Coal and oil are evil. What can we do to save the planet and make our economy more like Zimbabwe?<br />
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Clueless liberal #2: We can forbid expansion of domestic oil supplies, shut down coal-burning power plants, and harness the power of positive mental energy.<br />
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Clueless liberal #1:&nbsp;Brilliant! I haven't been this exciting since I read Michael Moore's latest fitness book.<br />
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<div>In May, [LBWL] broke ground on the $182 million natural gas-powered electric and steam generation plant in REO Town. The plant will house 180 BWL employees.<br />
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Once it goes online in 2013, the plant will replace the coal-fired Moores Park Steam Plant. It also will generate 100 megawatts of electric power. Eckert, by comparison, generates 350 megawatts of power.</div>
</blockquote>So the new plant will generate less than a third of the energy that the existing plant generates. I'm sure no one will mind if their house is the one that doesn't get enough power. Nosiree, no problem there. I wonder if you can volunteer your house to suffer rolling blackouts. You know, Obama voters, you should really do that. It's for the environment, and you love Mother Earth, don't you?<br />
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I am often in downtown Lansing, and I must have missed the plumes of black smoke billowing from the smoke stacks beside the Grand River. Missed the roads covered with ash and the people collapsed in the streets, gasping for breath because of the evils of coal. But it's probably because I don't have a PhD in &quot;Liberalism&quot; or &quot;How to bilk the taxpayers by pretending mankind is destroying the planet&quot;. I knew I should have got that degree...<br />
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But, in order to appease the gods, we must sacrifice economic common sense on the alter of the environment. Some things have to go: Light bulbs, cars,&nbsp; toilets that flush, freedom. You know, small things.<br />
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Basic economics lesson, part 1. What happens when you make a resource scarcer? It becomes more expensive.&nbsp; Next part of the lesson. Who is less able to afford hikes in electricity rates, the rich or the poor?&nbsp; The poor. Part three. The government will then see a problem in the poor can no longer afford the rates to power their homes, a problem created by the government. What will they do? Offer subsidies. Final part: Who will pay for the subsidies? The &quot;rich&quot;. Bonus points for also including China, who will buy more debt to cover another idiotic government program.<br />
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<div>Some believe the change is long overdue. The two rules will cut toxic mercury emissions from power plants by 90 percent, smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution by half, and soot-forming sulfur dioxide by more than 70 percent.</div>
</blockquote>Oh, thank goodness for the straw man argument - &quot;Some believe the change is long overdue&quot;. I'm sure the owners of Solyndra and other money pit solar panels companies believe that change is long overdue so they can get hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants. Obama has passed out about $1 billion in &quot;grants&quot; to these companies. The good news is that only <a href="http://clinton-countygop.com/content/its-d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu-all-over-again">one of the three has gone bankrupt</a>, a loss of over $500 million to the US taxpayers, so the other $500 million or so is still in play.<br />
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Is that the change you hoped for?<br />";s:6:"format";s:1:"2";}}}