I guess everyone has their hotbutton, and Obama hit mine. His anti coal industry and power generation is just flat out ignorant. Bankrupting the energy companies who use coal would not only hurt the people in the industy, it would send our economy and society into a tailspin. To put the infrastructure in place to replace coal as a source of electrical would take 25 years, and solar and wind combined won't come close to meeting the demand. Nuclear power is the only real replacement and the last plant to come online in the U.S. was in 1996.
And the funniest part about it, in spite of Al Gore's nobel prize and academy award, there is no evidence that greenhouse gases are what is causing global warming. Evidence suggests that it is the solar cycles which contribute most to global warming.
The best bumper sticker I saw regarding this was at a coal mine in Pennsylvania. It said "Ban Coal! Let them freeze in the dark!"
And that is the truth of the matter....without coal, our air conditioners, refrigerators, TVs, heaters, computers and lights become useless.
From the Politics for Pros thread:
Message 25132842
From: LindyBill 11/2/2008 7:43:06 AM
4 Recommendations Read Replies (6) of 278299
I hope they get this out in the coal country of Pennsylvania
Hidden Audio: Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry
NEWSBUSTERS
By P.J. Gladnick on San Francisco Chronicle
Imagine if John McCain had whispered somewhere that he was willing to bankrupt a major industry? Would this declaration not immediately be front page news? Well, Barack Obama actually flat out told the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate) that he was willing to see the coal industry go bankrupt in a January 17, 2008 interview. The result? Nothing. This audio interview has been hidden from the public...until now. Here is the transcript of Obama's statement about bankrupting the coal industry: youtube.com
Let me sort of describe my overall policy.
What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.
I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.
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.
That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.
The only thing I've said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.
It's just that it will bankrupt them.
Amazing that this statement by Obama about bankrupting the coal industry has been kept under wraps until this time. |
