 what s a blackout or two between friends  the planet is saved the planet is saved from the lansing state journal  washington more than 32 mostly coalfired 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 the epa has estimated 147 gigawatts enough power for more than 11 million households will be retired from the power grid in the 201415 period when the two new rules take effect i believe this goes handinhand with the liberals desire to use rainbows and unicorns as our nation s primary means of generating electricity i can just see a typical leftwing meeting at the department of energy clueless liberal 1 coal and oil are evil what can we do to save the planet and make our economy more like zimbabwe clueless liberal 2 we can forbid expansion of domestic oil supplies shut down coalburning power plants and harness the power of positive mental energy clueless liberal 1 brilliant i haven t been this exciting since i read michael moore s latest fitness book in may lbwl broke ground on the 182 million natural gaspowered electric and steam generation plant in reo town the plant will house 180 bwl employees once it goes online in 2013 the plant will replace the coalfired moores park steam plant it also will generate 100 megawatts of electric power eckert by comparison generates 350 megawatts of power 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 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 liberalism or how to bilk the taxpayers by pretending mankind is destroying the planet i knew i should have got that degree 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 toilets that flush freedom you know small things basic economics lesson part 1 what happens when you make a resource scarcer it becomes more expensive next part of the lesson who is less able to afford hikes in electricity rates the rich or the poor 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 rich bonus points for also including china who will buy more debt to cover another idiotic government program some believe the change is long overdue the two rules will cut toxic mercury emissions from power plants by 90 percent smogforming nitrogen oxide pollution by half and sootforming sulfur dioxide by more than 70 percent oh thank goodness for the straw man argument some believe the change is long overdue 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 grants to these companies the good news is that only one of the three has gone bankrupt  a loss of over 500 million to the us taxpayers so the other 500 million or so is still in play is that the change you hoped for  