I posted a couple of days ago about the first-ever EPA rules limiting carbon emissions, and the hysteria with which Indiana’s 19th-Century leaders greeted those rules.
Those leaders must have been really annoyed by a story in yesterday’s New York Times–that is, if they actually read the Times or other credible news sources.
The cries of protest have been fierce, warning that President Obama’s plan to cut greenhouse gases from power plants will bring soaring electricity bills and even plunge the nation into blackouts. By the time the administration is finished, one prominent critic said, “millions of Americans will be freezing in the dark.”
Yet cuts on the scale Mr. Obama is calling for — a 30 percent reduction in emissions from the nation’s electricity industry by 2030 — have already been accomplished in parts of the country.
At least 10 states cut their emissions by that amount or more between 2005 and 2012, and several other states were well on their way, almost two decades before Mr. Obama’s clock for the nation runs out.
Worse still for the naysayers, the states that have already begun to clean up their acts haven’t suffered the dire consequences predicted by apologists for Big Coal. The New England region has made some of the biggest cuts in emissions, and residential electricity bills there have fallen 7 percent since 2005. Meanwhile, economic growth in the region ran slightly ahead of the national average.
Oh, pesky evidence!
The Times also reported that Europe is considering a 43 percent cut in emissions by 2030.
So much for “we’re number one!”
There you go again, forgetting that science, math, & empirical evidence are mere liberal constructs designed to deprive real Americans of Liberty!
Truth, Justice and the American Way. Truth be handy sometimes. Thanks Prof.!!
The consequences of using Coal never seems to enter the equation for the Coal Lobby and their fellow travelers. Mountains leveled, mining accidents, transportation costs, storage of the coal the resulting pollution from the combustion of coal and finally the disposal of the coal ash.
The Coal Lobby fights tooth and nail against any type of controls. The Coal Lobby would like no or few restrictions on their activities, thus making coal appear “cheap.”
It was with great foresight that our little governor smoothed the path of the Edwardsport and Rockport coal plants were started. That ate up the energy budget of the state for decades to come, and will pick the pocket into a couple of generations of hoosiers. Thank your governor, who now wants to go to mars. I say fine–make it a one way ticket.
To the contention, “Coal kills people, when they mine it and when they burn it”, I’ve never understood the argument “But you can work”. In my world, when people are dead or physically incapacitated, they usually can’t work, whatever the pay or whether they are mine workers or people who breathe the stuff.
Maybe a real political leader would encourage alternative ways to employ people. After all, in this week’s Time Magazine, it was reported that there are now as many jobs in the solar and wind industries as there are in the coal industry. Maybe that might be something that a smart governor could consider. And, with the coal industry, maybe invite some of that interesting research (mentioned in this month’s Wired Magazine) to use coal in creative ways. After all, doesn’t his buddy have something to do with Purdue University? But that might be harder than being a demagogue.
During the Mesozoic Era the dinosaurs roared, “we are too big to fail”. The environment had changed as a result of a natural accident, a giant asteroid collision, so in truth, they were too big not to fail. So they did, and were replaces by species like us who were better suited for the new environment. Good for us, bad for them.
During the modern era many businesses grew huge taking advantage of another natural accident from before the dinosaurs, the formation of fossil fuels on earth. Now that the true cost of their waste streams has come home to roost, they too are claiming too big to let fail.
In truth, the 7B people on earth can’t afford the real cost of fossil fuels any longer. The continued use of fossil fuels is too expensive when global warming consequences are taken into account. Tax payers should not be forced to go broke paying for that business to maintain their success.