Friday Open Thread

14 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

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   1. Zap – did you catch this one?  Priceless…

      Man Who Would Rather Go Blind Than Get Obamacare Now Going Blind

       

      Lang has set up a GoFundMe page, and people are donating—because even though it’s insane to blame Obamacare, the system really is fucked up—but they’re also chastising him for being “a poster child for what you claim to be against” and “voting against [your] own self-interest.”

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      1. 

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2. The Gospel of Greed had a major outpost here in Springs with New Life, Pastor Ted and his hands on approach to things. Even though he failed spectacularly, the true believers still believe that Gospel and whoever it is preaching it.

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3. Republicans trying to pretend that ignoring our infrastructure needs for the last 35+ years is OK.

   1. Paul Ryan lies about current appropriations and that "it's just going through the process."

   2.  John Boehner lies and says Amtrak crash had nothing to do with funding.

   3. Our own Gary Hart was on this issue many years ago.

   Any D's with some political smarts, and who aren't subsumed with other issues like bad trade deals and making sure their banker friends are doing ok, would be wise to hammer on this issue and lay the blame where it goes: mostly on Republicans, Greedy 1%-ers, and Anti-Tax, Anti-Government freaks on the right, and those who sign on to that rhetoric by default.

   And if there's a question about shovel-ready projects, they are still out there.

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4. Courts force feds to consider climate impacts of mining coal

    

   Colowyo employs 220 people and contributes more than $200 million to the regional economy, including an estimated $12 million in local, state and federal taxes, according to Tri-State.

   Any truth to these numbers that the federal alphabet soup is strangling through job-killing regulations?  That's how the righties are spinning it; actually the suit was brought by a private group.

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   1. Oh, those poor, boot-strappin' boys who just can't give up their dinosaur poop and join the 21st-century.  Neither politics or geology is on their side; they've been fighting 'change' since their unsuccessful campaign to defeat Amendment 37 in 2004 – and they just keep doubling down on stupid.  What about the tens of millions you've blown on the failed Holcomb coal plant expansion?  What about our double-digit wholesale rate increases we've had for years that have nothing to do with renewable energy mandates?  If you were a regulated utility (like you should be) and there was any transparency in your system, I'm guessing you would have a member uprising over the terms of the agreement you signed when you purchased your last black hole in the ground from Rio Tinto. 

      But I digress…

      Even Daily Finance says the demise of coal is good for consumers…

      Coal has played a big role in energy in the U.S. for over a century, but those days are coming to an end — and it's becoming clear that the death of coal will actually have a positive impact on your energy costs. Maybe the new generation of cleaner energy plants makes both environmental and financial sense after all?

       

       

       

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   2. Yet another 'hair on fire' opportunity for those cretins who want you to believe there is a war on coal…and to tell yet another lie:

      Colorado will comply with EPA plan to cut emissions

      Critics say the rules will send electricity rates skyrocketing as coal, which emits CO2 when burned in power plants, is phased out of the nation’s power portfolio.

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      1. And meanwhile deep in the heart of Tarsandia…

         Canada reneges on emissions targets as tar sands production takes its toll

         The expansion of tar sands production destroyed any prospect of Canada meeting its earlier target of a 17% emissions cut on 2005 levels by 2020, agreed by Harper in 2009. Current analysis suggests Canada will get only halfway to that goal.

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         1. There are lots of parallel 'Games of Chicken' going on with not only Tri-State but the fossil-fuel crowd.  They all knew there was an outside chance the day of enforceable environmental regulations would come; they bet on the fact that alternative forms of energy would remain high.  So, like Tri-State, they continued to double-down on stupid: Tri-State waging their fake "War on Rural Colorado"; continuing to, behind the scenes, keep their Holcomb coal plant wet dream standing at attention.  Xcel Energy is playing that game to some degree as well, with their plan to put scrubbers on their Pawnee and Craig facilities, extending the lives of those coal plants and sticking their ratepayers with all future costs.

            As I've posted on here before, if we simply converted 16% of our known ag wastes to advanced biofuels we would produce 3X the fuel proposed to come down the KXL; if we combined that with the ag waste resources in Alberta, that number would dwarf any job and economic forecast KXL could promise. 

            As far as Tri-States comments on jobs, taxes and regional activity goes, if the same amount of energy being produced by the ColoWyo mine was being generated by solar and wind across their member rural electric territories they'd produce more jobs, more taxes and we'd have cheaper, long-term energy resources.  But they'd just as soon you didn't know that.  They made a really made a bad business decision when they bought ColoWyo  (during one of their 'doubling down on stupid' binges) and now to cover up that awful decision, they need to convince all of us that we need coal.  

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            1. So the UK company Rio Tinto divested itself of all its American coal mines, being grounded in objective "reality".  And Western Fuels Colorado bought that same coal mine, being grounded in wishful thinking.

               So now convincing the public (and friendly legislators) that coal creates jobs and renewables create high energy bills is part of the cost of doing business.

               At least Hick is doing the right thing for once in not backing off from the EPA standards.

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         2. The Fossilonians are in going to soon be as irrelevant as the whale blubber industry of the 19th century and the buggy whip makers of the Henry Ford-era.  Next generation biofuels are here – and the Third Industrial Revolution has already well underway. The question remains an open one:  will the US be a leader in this industrial revolution – or will the petro-politics that control state and federal politico's ultimately doom the United States irrelevancy?  

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         3. How does this relate to the recent election in Alberta of the New Democratic Party candidate (not a supporter of tar sands oil development)?

            The Vox article linked above says that the NDP may have its greatest impact just speaking the truth; that the oil companies pay low royalties to the government, while getting lots of breaks…(sound familiar?) The NDP pledges "transparency" – at the least to let the public know how they are being fleeced.

             

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5. Kinda depends on the 2016 elections…I’m thinking…

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