“This is not a particularly sexy issue, but it is important…”
Columnist Bob Roper writes in the Columbia Daily Tribune:
Like everyone, no doubt, I always have assumed that when I flip a switch to turn on the lights, they will, indeed, come on. Likewise, I always believed the electric rates I have to pay for that electricity would be as low as reasonably possible. I am starting to have doubts about both of those assumptions.
It has never been a secret that the Obama administration is hostile to burning coal as an energy source. After all, then-candidate Barack Obama had this to say in 2008: “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.” As it happens, no one is planning to build any new coal-fired plants at present. Message received.
So, what is going on here? After all, the proposed cap-and-trade law — the attempt to solve the alleged global warming problem by greatly limiting carbon dioxide emissions — did not pass Congress. Apparently the failure of the cap-and-trade system to pass through the representative government process means nothing to the Environmental Protection Agency. It knows best, so we are going to get it anyway, in the form of very restrictive regulations. And, remember, these regulations apply to existing power plants, including Columbia’s…
I am not particularly fond of coal as an energy source, even though the newer plants are much cleaner than the old ones. But there is one thing I really like about it: It is not only plentiful but very inexpensive compared to the alternatives. Here are the usual ranges of the costs per megawatt-hour of the most common sources of energy:
Coal: $13-$27 per megawatt-hour
Natural gas: $40-$70 per megawatt-hour
Oil: $80-$150 per megawatt-hour
Nuclear power: difficult to calculate precisely but clearly much higher than coal
Wind: $45-$65 per megawatt-hour
Solar: $60-$120 per megawatt-hour…
Dear Bob: You are expecting SENSE, when the EPA is DEDICATED…to NON-SENSE! It might be part of the Marxian-rounds of thesis-anti-thesis and so on, but the over-weening authority,–directed or not in each case, is Globalist, who have SWORN they will USE Marx’s methods to destroy this country, and ANY of those of the West. Post Viet-nam war, the Victorious Communists went into Eco-Nazism, because if you control the land, the citizen can be a prisoner on it/in it. Govt. Hegonomy means private business has to go. When Nobama was telling you he’d “rap-down on Coal”, he SHOULD have said, I’m going to be DICTATING to you, and if the Dictating mechanism is Blocked by the Congress, I will Executive-order, and direct my Bureaus to take-down private business, RECESSION of NOT! Because HIS goal, is NOT to take us OUT of a Recession, but to put us so deep in a Recession, that it will take the ILLUSION of World Govt. to “rescue” business, even though businesses continue to devolve and go OUT of business,for which Nobama is extremely happy. Besides Marxism & Islam(imo), Nobama ALSO has the “God” of Class-ENVY…that also “rules” him. His Father & Mentors trained him to destroy the USA, by all means possible, and he is DOING THAT, and YOU & OTHERS are ALLOWING HIM TO DO IT!!! Communism did NOT “go-away”–it went into the Executive,–the bureaus, it went into the Green Non-profits, –it went deeper into the Universities via things, “Politically-correct”. You THINK a country can’t FALL over in-effective govt.? Imperial China, FELL, due mostly to the in-efficiency of its “bureaus” who were controlled by an ethnicity,–the Mandarins. Our “mandarins” are willingly taking us into international ruling entities, like the U.N., which will eventually Block them from doing any ruling, and they can collect their pay and smoke dope (-for legitimate “medical” reasons, of course). Hellery Clinton, has gone around trying to limit the ability of the USA to save itself, by signing binding-treaties like: Law of the Sea, Intntl Convntn on Small Arms, Kyoto-Rio-Durban-whatever climate accords, the “abortion” that’s the ICC(International Criminal Court) which will TRUMP(–sorry Donald) ALL USA Juris-prudence!, etc. Republicans are thinking, let’s NOT impeach him Now–just wait until the 2012 elections. –BIG, BIG, MIS-TAKE! THERE’S a PROBLEM. All VOTE-TABULATION for all USA races will be done in FAR-AWAY SPAIN, where the Clintons have shares/influence of those final totals of the votes, imo. So although we THINK we’re soon to get relief from Barry Soretoro or whoever he is, Nobama will, due to Spanish Vote-tabulation, WIN, and WIN in a LANDSLIDE (–because landslides are much more difficult to contest, whether they really are a landslide…or not). So this nation will FALL in the other half,–Not as Eastwood states, although he may still be able to do “Re-education films” for the “washing”of the brains of the Masses, that used to eagerly swallow every “shoot ’em up”(–those were GREAT MOVIES!) that he could make, except now his characterizations are shallow, pathetic, milque-toast individuals, with individual-defeating PLOTS, where instead of marrying the tractor, the Hero eagerly lies down for the next social-steam-roller. We HAVE TO CHANGE where they hold the VOTE-TABULATION, or we’ll NEVER be rid of Nobama, and, because it is some thread of Globalist Advance, NO ONE is TALKING ABOUT IT! ONLY Dr. Michael Savage of the “Savage Nation” talk-radio show, will discuss it. Mark R Levin (recent book, “Ameritopia”) and brilliant, Reagan-era-and-later Constitutional Scholar, NEEDS to spend a show on this topic. The Republicans and even the Tea-party people,–noble citizens,–are merely politcally masturbating, because if the Clintens can Tabulate all USA Votes in Socialist-Spain, Our Lord Jesus Christ, could come down and gain the Nomination of the Republicans, and he’d STILL LOSE…(–in a landslide…)…
If the costs of nuclear power are ‘clearly much higher than coal’, what’s the economic incentive involved? Maybe subsidies? It looks like the costs of wind and solar are a bit low — perhaps subsidies are factored out as well? After all, I’m a skeptic.