Arkansas Blog

The rest of the known world is CANCELING these things - what's wrong with this picture??!!!

1) greedy "players"
2) Beebe
3) PSC Stepfords
4) DUMBASS Arkies (that would be US!)
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Hey Cato, maybe someone in Hempstead County could ask WHICH STATE will get the electricity produced
by burning coal in Arkansas based generators? We get the cough and Texas gets the wire.

Just when the state could be proud of itself for reducing smoking these lung-destroying monsters arrive.

Hmm, Larry. That's about as succinct as it gets. Bingo!

We in Hempstead County like billions being spend here and the short and long term jobs. Leave us alone.

Permit me a simple-minded theoretical question: Why is there a continuing demand for increased electrical production in this country?

There is a direct correlation between the production of manufactured goods and the demand for electricity; i.e., manufacturing plants require electricity.

With so much of our manufacturing industries having gone abroad, what is driving this increased demand for electricity?

Ground level ozone is caused by cars and coal burning industries.

We are having ozone action day alerts and the Department of Environmental Quality is letting a dirty coal plant be built upwind from Little Rock.

If the Hempstead County people want the jobs then you keep the pollution. If you are willing to build the plant WITHOUT the smokestack then you are putting your lungs where your mouth is. If you want to build an ultratall smoke stack so that others in the distance have to deal with the downsides of your pollution then we need to ask why you hate Americans and want to pollute the largest city in the state.

You might be talking out the other side of your mouth, natural, when you go out every morning to find a fine black dust covering everything. That's what happened downwind of White Bluff when they started operations. Around here it affected some big boy farmers and White Bluff had to install some scrubbers or some such, pronto. But who knows what's still coming out of that stack that can't be easily seen or smelled. You folks down there got a lot of political clout? You're probably gonna need it.
And how far downwind does the pollution go? Ever wonder if that hacking cough your mom developed last week was related to that blue haze that hung over Arkansas? Ever wonder where it came from?
That just touches on the local problems. Sure, let's bring a lot of Wyoming to Arkansas, and points south, via long, long coal trains, and burn it. Makes sense to me, 'specially in the absence of any attempt to scope out energy alternatives on the part of energy companies OR individuals. You think the energy companies are interested in exploring alternatives? Not likely. The status quo is just fine as long as it transfers our energy dollars to their pockets.
Me? I wouldn't mind being off the grid. I've had it with Entergy (yeah, different company, but put 'em all in a bag and shake 'em . . .). Got an outage? Get a recording that will invariably tell you the problem will be fixed commencing exactly one hour plus one or two hence. Call back in two hours and get another recording. Same thing with only the timing advanced -- not helpful if you're concerned that oxygen tanks might not last through the night.
Finally get a human and what am I told? Take the patient to a hospital or nursing home. Sputtering, I ask to speak to a supervisor. Answer? I will forward your request and you can expect a phone call within 48 hours. And yes, this is Entergy's normal procedure. I never got that phone call, by the way.
You bet I'd like to get off the grid if I could find a practical and affordable alternative. In the meantime, perhaps the PSC could figure out a way to make these companies more responsive to their customers' needs. A little strong arming? A little tit for tat? Has the commission become toothless? Or are they simply in the wrong pocket?

"if I could find a practical and affordable alternative" - Ah, there's the rub.

"if I could find a practical and affordable alternative" - Ah, there's the rub.

Not really. There are companies in AR that will rent you solar panels. You pay per month about what your energy bill used to be and get the benefit of using clean energy. I lived in a demo house at heifer with lights powered by solar panels that charged a battery. That was over 10 years ago and I know the technology has come a long ways. Solar panels will drop in price drastically in the next year or two (research Nanosolar, First Solar, and others) and they already pay for themselves in the long run. In fact, take out a loan to buy current (expensive) solar panels and your monthly payment will likely be less than your enery savings.

That house also used gas from animal crap to fuel the stove. Kinda gross, but much cheaper than natural gas these days! The poo just sat in a tank outside (looked just like a propane tank) and the gas came into the house and didn't smell bad at all while burning.

"Has the commission become toothless?" ---Doigotta

Do I: Unless you are aware of some "dentistry" committed upon them, I'm saying---
They never HAD any to begin with! THAT is the #1 criteria for any wannabe "regulators" in The Natural State. Oh yes, they also have to be Baptist...and toothless.
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Aw, eLwood, let's reward the county that took in the state CSA government in Arkansas when you guys couldn't hang on to Little Rock in the Great Patriotic War against The Northern Invaders. They deserve finally getting their fair cut instead of it all going to those pasty faced losers in Central Arkansas. Let it be noted we uns down here kept control of our area until the bitter end. I guess we could push for an atomic electric plant down there but those folks in Russellville (Central Arkansas, again) would have a fit I will defer any further wise reflections to my partner in crime over here in God's Country, a guy named Louie.

"In fact, take out a loan to buy current (expensive) solar panels and your monthly payment will likely be less than your enery (sic) savings."

There you go, Diogotta, problem solved!

Show of hands: How many people here depend on their local economy for their livelihood? Not many I'm beginning to think.

Check the rate on your last electric bill and see what wonderful, clean burning natural gas has done to it this month. All those expensive little natural gas generators they built all around have kicked in to make up for our lack of nuculer and coal fired capacity. Get your calculator out and starting doubling and tripling it to see what the natural gas industry will do to us if we don't continue to diversify our energy sources.

Oh how I wish bugeyed. We got a lectric coal-fired generator about 35 mi East of me (as crow flies) and damn! That fuel adjustment charge came in for July just the same as if it were generated with gas. And the coal fired beast belongs to our lectric supplier all along...which sends the bulk of its lectricity to Oakies. Same with dams on our White River system, using the two major Ark River basins to collect and store water and generate only to see the lectricity send to Oakies and Missouri.

Again,Ark is the ugly, easy girl who gets drilled often but never gets invited to the dance. Still 49th and lovin it. Rock on Cato.
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Don't despair, eLwood....the lottery is the panacea.

You can complain and complain, but geuss what turn your lights out for two hours and then you are willing to build a coal power plant in your back yard. There is no making everyone happy. I beleive that it might not be the best thing for the enviroment, but neither is driving your car to work. Why dont we all walk that will make arkansas cleaner. We can go on and on about the environment but lets be honest all we really care about is convenience, I hear all about the talk of pollution but there is other reasons for the way people are acting about this power plant. The EPA has been put in charge of taking care of the environment, do you beleive they dont know that arkansas is building a power plant, beleive me if the power plant is constructed it will be under strict guidelines of the EPA and will be as safe as a coal power plant can be. Not perfect im sure, but are you. This stuff about a hunting club fighting to get the construction halted is crap. Sorry but true, all they want is there hunting land and no neighbors. They have bullied around all the people in that area by money, they now have met there match. These people are not your average blue collar workers, they are the people who come in and pay an astronomical amount to kill animals each year, yeah they're worried about the environment.

Ohhhh, let them have their money making toxic industry down there in Southern Arkansas.I mean what is one more? Gosh, they have Ark Hazwaste in Eldorado , Two Paper Mills around Texarkana, Ashgrove in Foreman, now that is a good clean industry....gosh we even burned lot of deadly chemicals back in the day at the LRADB, anybody willing to remember Vertac/Hercules Superfund Site. that was burned up, gone now, whew glad of that! So now these poor, low educated, southerners want to burn a little coal, hey....they need money .....what else is there? I mean in S/W Arkansas?