That’s shorthand, in case you’re wondering, for “Not In My Back Yard”. It’s a standard cry of the common raving moonbat, used to stop construction of anything from offshore windfarms (invoked by Teddy “Swim, Bitch” Kennedy) to offshore drilling, to anything else.
This time it’s Kansas dimmocrat governess Kathleen Sebelius vetoing new powerplants.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius surprised absolutely no one today by vetoing legislation designed to resurrect two coal plants in Western Kansas.
Now comes the big question mark: do lawmakers have the two-thirds majorities needed to override her veto? We’ll find out in two weeks when lawmakers return to Topeka.
Quick history lesson: Sunflower Electric Power Corp. wants to build coal plants near Holcomb. State regulator rejects project because of carbon emissions. Legislature cries foul, four times passes legislation to authorize plants. Sebelius vetoes all four efforts.
Here’s what Sebelius, a Democrat, had to say today in her latest veto:
“Last year, I vetoed legislation that forced the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to issue air quality permits for two new coal fired plants which would produce 11 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. These new plants would generate 1400 megawatts of electricity, most of which would be exported to Colorado and Texas. In fact, Kansas would only get 200 megawatts of electricity, while we would get all of the new pollution.
And the jobs. Don’t forget the jobs. Real jobs by people who actually build things, not just shuffle government paper.
Jobs to BUILD two powerplants can run into the hundreds for a couple of years, and then there are the jobs for the people who work in the powerplants after they’re finished, permanent, jobs that last for years, jobs that pay enough to put most of the plant staff in the top two quintiles of the national income figures. And then there are the peripheral jobs of the people who work for the contractors that work for the plants, and the peripheral businesses like restaurants and motels that serve people working at the plants, and with all that money floating around, the local shopping scene gets a boost, they’ll need more schools, etc. etc.
But that’s not how dimmocrats think. People who work for a living for every dollar they make, they’re quite likely to vote the wrong way, so let’s keep ’em dumb and on the dole, and they’ll be good dimmocrats at election time.
Sez Mizz Sebelius:
“I vetoed that legislation because while the rest of the country was trying to reduce greenhouse emissions, Kansas would be creating massive new emissions for power we don’t need. Additionally, it appeared that federal legislation that would penalize new carbon dioxide emissions was on the horizon leaving Kansans vulnerable for years to come.”
Yeah, lady, you’re absolutely right. Your fellow moonbats decide to start that carbon credit farce, and that could queer the deal, not only for Kansas, but for the country as a whole. Carbon dioxide? Plants crave it. All those “amber waves of grain’? sucking up carbon dioxide by the ton, you know. Or you don’t know.
The babbling continues:
“The bill before me now attempts to take us down that failed path once again. What was a bad idea last year, is an even worse idea today. Now, we know that according to Sunflower Electric’s own reports, their customers will not need additional power until 2018. We also know that President Obama is moving aggressively to regulate new carbon dioxide emissions. These developments reaffirm that now is not the time for new coal plants in Kansas.”
Yeah, President Moonbat is moving aggressively to shut down the technology that generates half the electricity in the country without offering a real alternative. But then you don’t learn about those things as a ‘community organizer’ or in Harvard Law School.
And that 2018 thing? What do you do in 2018 when the brownouts start? You start whining. and then I and others will quietly tell you that ten years is a good number to figure if you decide today to build a new powerplant, what with all the permits YOUR government requires, the design process, the ordering of stuff that you can’t buy off the shelf down the street from Michelle Obama’s boutique, and the actual construction itself. And just building the plant isn’t all. You’ve got to find and train operators, and you’ve got to build railroads (or pipelines… I ***LIKE*** natural gas, myself) to haul fuel to the plant, and the right-of-ways and the big high voltage power lines, substations and stuff to tie that powerplant to the national electric grid. Takes time. No businessman worth his salt builds for TODAY’S need, that’s WAAAAY behind the response curve. He’s building for the market growth. But big government folks aren’t businessmen. Their only tools are laws, and they think that making the law makes the thing happen.
More government can never make things easier, only harder. Harder is more expensive and takes longer.
And in today’s business climate, big business is going to be very reluctant to make commitments of the millions of dollars it takes to do big projects because they see the Obama regime as a loose cannon on the deck. Business sees what’s going on and they’re thinking, “If I commit a quarter of a billion on this project, I can do it, but if the rules change too much before I finish, I’m going to lose my (and the stockholders’) butt.” Lot of big business is thinking that way.
“But Cajun”, you say, “why can’t they just build the extra cost into the rate structure?” Oh, yeah, and they see Big Oil hauled in front of Congress for making a profit below what the government takes in taxes, but Big Oil is evil, and Big Electricity knows that their rate structure is overseen by state regulators who have to give permission for rate increases. Big Business sees Washington today and KNOWS these folks aren’t stable. It’s like calling the local psychiatric hospital for your next babysitter…
Then Mizz Sebelius recounts her hope in unicorn farts and rainbows to light our homes:
“Prior to the start of this legislative session, Lieutenant Governor Parkinson and I worked with utility stakeholders to develop a renewable portfolio standard that would have further developed the natural resource we have in wind energy. Our proposed energy legislation contained real net-metering so that Kansans would be fairly compensated for power they generated; we also included energy efficiency measures to reduce our future energy needs.
“We presented these proposals to the legislature, with the hope that the legislature would move towards a renewable energy economy creating thousands of jobs right here in Kansas. However, the legislature chose instead to sacrifice real comprehensive energy legislation in the pursuit of more coal-fired power plants. “
Here’s a chart:
The chart’s from wikipedia for the year 2006. See that wedge that says “Other renewables”? That’s wind and geothermal and solar and everthing else. 2.4 stinkin’ percent. Why? Because 1. Without government subsidies, the stuff doesn’t pay. 2. It’s unreliable. Where windfarms are installed, they typically produce 20-40% of the installed capacity and MUST be backed up by other conventional generation to make up for times when the wind isn’t blowing. Anybody promising more is bullsh*tting shomebody…
The moonbattess prattleth onward:
“Despite what supporters of this legislation say, HB 2014 does little to advance clean, renewable energy. In fact, the renewable energy standards established in HB 2014 are less than the voluntary standards we already have today. The net metering provisions in the bill are weaker than any of the 42 states that currently offer net metering to utility consumers.
“Kansas needs legislation that will increase development of our renewable energy resources, increase energy efficiency measures and create good-paying jobs. Once again, as the rest of the country moves toward a renewable energy future, the legislature is intent on darkening Kansas’ energy future with new coal plants that will provide energy we don’t yet need.”
Nope, lady, the rest of the country ISN’T moving that way, because that way is an impossibility. Just because the global warming/tree-hugger bunch is propagandizing the nation into believing that they can legislate against the laws of physics and economics doesn’t mean that anything will actually happen beside the wrecking of the industry and the nation.
And she continues:
“I encourage the legislature to abandon its efforts to saddle Kansas with massive new carbon dioxide emissions, and instead adopt a plan that will take advantage of our enormous wind assets and really look at energy efficiency as a way to stretch our power sources well into the future while creating thousands of sustainable Kansas jobs.”
And in Kansas, as in many states, the biggest wind is coming out of the state capital.
Her veto means the bill goes back to the legislature to see if Kansans still have the sense and the gonads to override this boob.
It’s scary, folks, to see this level of stupidity at the highest levels of the government. How can we expect the nation to survive when our ‘leadership’ doesn’t even begin to acknowledge the physical realities that keep the nation rolling.
Having worked in the geothermal sector for a while, I can tell you, it’s one of the better renewable resources we have. And yet, too few people even hear about it. It’s been 21 years since I left that company and still…nothing. Ridiculous
The market will take care of renewable energy, if it’s left alone. Subsidies mean my hard earned tax dollars go into the pockets of businesses that don’t make profits and politicians, who are parasites.
The biggest boondoggle (besides political posturing, of course)is solar power. The solar flux is approximately 1 kilowat per square meter per solar day. Considering that solor power-to-electricity is, at best, about 10% efficient, you are now down to 100 watts per square meter. This means that each megawatt (1,000,000 watts) requires 10,000 square meters, or one hectare. To equal the power output of the proposed coal plant would require 1400 hectares (or 3500 acres) covered completely with solar capture devices, absorbing ALL of the solar energy tha falls on the surface. This means it is really, really dark (and cold!) under the solar collectors (after all, you have absorbed all of the solar energy to create electricity).
Consider that there are 640 acres in a square mile, you have now covered 5.5 square miles with solar collectors to replace the planned coal plant. And even if everything works 100% for 100% of the time, you still will be able to get power from the solar site, that takes up 5.5 square miles of the earth’s surface for only about half of the time. After all, there is this physical constraint to solar power no one has figured a way around – it’s called NIGHT. Solar power don’t work worth a da*n when the sun goes down.
Another problem with the so-called “green” energy sources is that it still requires substantial energy to just make the components for it. I read somewhere that it takes more energy and petroleum products to make and maintain a wind generation facility than that facility could ever produce. The nuts are in charge of the asylum and trying to export their crazy to the rest of the world. We certainly need to work on conserving petroleum for things, other than cars, that we really don’t have any foreseeable way of fueling otherwise, like manufacture of certain plastics and lubricant production, but natural gas and nuclear are the inescapably necessary sources for the immediate future in electric generation. Gas is an absolute no-brainer. Plentiful and clean burning. The perfect transition fuel. Fine in cars, buses, and trucks, too, until hydrogen, fuel cell, or other electric alternatives come on line.
The cost in money and time to build nuke plants should never have been a big factor. We just needed to scale up naval vessel reactor systems, fully self contained and standardized–no custom, site-designed and built stuff–and we’re off to the races. Crap, even France figured that out a long time ago.