"Candidate of Change" Promotes 60's Agenda

Every time a politician says that they want to change things, be cautious. When people promote him as something completely new- be downright frightened. There is an old saying that there is nothing new under the sun- and this goes triple for politics. Believe it or not, there are no new ideas.

One of the trademarks of the left is their preference of the planet’s state to actual human beings. I would argue that the planet’s been around for some time now, and to think we could destroy it is pretty arrogant- but no matter, that’s speculative and thus of no real value. I do wish they would have some argument for global warming other than saying “the debate is over!” and holding their hands over there ears and screaming like a two-year old when anyone tries to bring up all of the scientists against this idea. A recent Senate report on global warming had over 600 scientists (well-renowned, doctorate-holding climatologists, physicists, astrophysicists) saying that there is in fact, no global warming (and many even expressed concerns over “global cooling”, some believing that the next Little Ice Age may be upon us soon).

With temperatures hitting record lows across the country, and the hysteria over “the ice caps are melting!” now well-known to be debunked (for those of you who don’t, only the Arctic one is shrinking by a miniscule amount- the Antarctic is actually growing); the left’s desperation for people to believe them about global warming is becoming apparent for what it is: fear-mongering. You know, the same thing they accuse Republicans of doing about terrorism. Except that I can think of 3,000 reasons right off the top of my head from fall 2001 that terrorism is real, whereas global warming has not only killed no one, but is also- to be really generous- highly questionable.

In any case, the real issue of this column is about Obama’s plans for the coal industry. The San Francisco Chronicle revealed that earlier this year Senator Obama offered the following during the course of an interview: “If somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.” He has said outright that he plans to bankrupt the coal industry via cap-and-trade policies and heavy taxation; in order to help our environment. This would almost be understandable if coal these days actually hurt the environment.

When people think of “coal plant”, they generally think of grainy images in textbooks of smokestacks releasing noxious black clouds into the air stretching for miles. Rarely do they envision the truth of the coal industry today: state-of-the-art, modern facilities which emit 98% less noxious fumes than they did even twenty years ago. Apart from various environmentalist group studies (hardly unbiased) that put “coal-pollution deaths” at around 24,000 per year, the two fumes that are released by coal plants turn out to be ones that wouldn’t be harmful to humans if they were present ten times as heavy.

I find it dangerous and infuriating to have a president who knows so little about something he wants to effectively shut down. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that coal plants do kill 24,000 people a year, on a national level. Okay. Now, what do you suppose will happen to states that are almost completely dependent on coal-powered electricity if Obama bankrupts the coal industry? West Virginia, Ohio, Wyoming, Colorado, etc. These states’ economies will come grinding to a screeching halt when none of their businesses have power. What about their hospitals? Is it not arguable that the power to hospitals saves more lives than the 24,000 coal fumes supposedly kill?

This exposes the fallacy of the argument anyway: cars kill many more people per year than coal ever has total- but people are aware cars are necessary and the benefits of transportation outweigh the risks. Why can they not see the same about coal power? Furthermore, what will you replace it with? Liberals will not let us build nuclear power either (though every other civilized country has it). Wind power? Texas has the most wind-power of all the states; guess how much their huge windmill fields generate?

Two percent.

Those hot, arid days when people need air conditioning the most in Texas (you know, the days when there isn’t any wind blowing), they use coal (34%), oil, natural gas. Those things that actually work. Imagine what would happen to West Virginia (95% coal-powered).

So, basically, Obama is saying that not only people’s standard of living, but their life, their financial security, and their health must all step aside in the name of the environmentalist lobby- even when that action would be disastrous for our country’s economy and healthcare, and standard of living as a whole.

Inasmuch as there is no alternative that is ready and able to replace coal (unless you count those they won’t allow us to build), especially in the aforementioned and other coal-dependent states, this is a completely irrational idea and we as citizens need to mobilize against it, as well as other eco-idiocies.