The Obama Energy Policy: Bankrupt Coal Power Plants. (link)
As someone who has a very good understanding of how power is generated and transmitted, I must tell you that the afore-linked youtube video is the most chilling prognostication of an Obama Presidency. Well, short of the one talking about giving up our nuclear weapons. I’m not saying this to get you to vote, I’m assuming you will. I’m assuming that a lot of people who don’t read this blog, history books, or books about economics will vote. People like Peggy Joseph (link), who took her kids out of school for the day to see Barack Obama at a rally, and told the local news that she was so excited because she “won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage… or filling my gas tank” if Barack Obama is elected. God help us.
Guys, we need coal energy to survive. Pickens’ pipe dream aside, THERE IS NOT CURRENTLY A SUITABLE “GREEN ENERGY” SOURCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE TO REPLACE COAL, GAS, OIL, OR NUCLEAR POWER. It’s not something you just decide to turn on, it takes decades to do.
I have some hope that a President Obama (or President McCain, who’s also promised cap and trade) would be struck by the reality that the immense taxation from “cap and trade” on these industries will either be passed on to all consumers of energy (including the elderly, middle, and lower-classes who are evidently ”struggling to pay their energy bills” already), or it will shut down the industries.
There are quite a few coal-fired electric plants (and on a different but equally important subject, oil refineries) in this nation which are coming of age, as we keep hearing Senator Obama’s campaign surrogates say he’s the guy to fix our “crumbling” infrastructure. But this statement, as well as Joe Biden’s statement about letting the Chinese build new plants but that we can’t have any here, is alarming.
I’m not saying that an Obama/Biden administration aren’t just saying stuff to lock up their environitwit constituency that they wouldn’t go back on, but right now I have to take them at their word.
It’s probably worth discussing, as many are already, how to survive these Obamanomics. This also dovetails with the largely-ignored EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) threat from Iran and other rogue nations (link), who’d have to detonate a nuclear weapon 400 km over Kansas to potentially knock out power to the continental US.
In some ways, having camping/backpacking as a (dormant…sadly) hobby helps me to collect the things that I need to have some quantity of potable water, and make hot water. I also have a lot of gear (such as the goose-down -20F sleeping bag and a few zeroF and +20F sleeping bags) that would last for a while to keep my family warm at night if the infrastructure we’re used to was absent.
But I guess, living in a home that was designed for life with the full public infrastructure (potable water, electricity, and NG), there is a concern over what to do if any of that fails. I dream of a self-sufficient retreat home in a sparsely populated area, but like the Pickens plan, it’s more of a pipe dream at this point.
Like the recent America-killing ”comprehensive immigration reform” and “bailout” proposals, the cap and trade program is something that Congress needs to receive unprecedented and scathing phone calls when it comes up. Be ready to kill it before the Schumer hits the fan.
Kicker
November 2nd, 2008
You seem to have left out one of the most important elements of the Obama energy plan…. When resources become scarce, those who control them gain a disproportionate measure of power.
Imagine, if you will, that energy becomes rationed. What happens to communities or businesses who fail to exhibit sufficiently rabid support? What happens to those who fail to “contribute” enough to Liberal campaign coffers?
I expect that an Obama energy plan, as hinted, is really just the tip of the iceberg. The knife in the flowers will be what a rationed energy system will allow an Obama administration to impose on the public when the alternative is shivering in the dark.
Big Don
November 3rd, 2008
TRE – We like your stuff. Keep up the good work! Thanks…
Oreitha Bayley
November 3rd, 2008
Common sense suggests that an Obama Administration will put in place policies which will lead to re-election in 2012. Consequently the notion that under Obama the country will be taken far left, to me, is just fear mongering.
Secondly, Obama, his wife and daughters , all live in the United States. How will they benefit from living in an impoverished country? No way .
I believe that both parties want the best for their country but differ about the best way to accomplish this goal. It would not profit either party to lie
BadIdeaGuy
November 3rd, 2008
Oreitha, for one thing, I don’t rely on other people having common sense, or we wouldn’t have “McCain vs Obama” at all.
But I do agree that a BHO administration will put in place policies which will lead to reelection in 2012, like full citizenship and voting rights for illegal immigrants, forced unionization, and the fairness doctrine.
We’ve been told that for some to have and others to have not is unfair, and that the Democrats will try to make it fair. The political ruling class will never starve or be cold.
I don’t believe both parties have the nation’s best interests at heart, especially the Democrats. They’re so indebted to organized labor for the last 5 years of hardcore political activity that they have to give them back something special, which is called the “Employee Free Choice Act”.