Arkansas Blog

Good lord.

Out of ALL the various types of new energy production, Beebe goes for coal?

I'm not all for nook yoo lar energy either. But solar and wind is the future, Mike. Arkansas is well located for solar. We're looking toward the future, not the past.

>> the co-ops are saying that, well, yeah maybe we need to switch to other ways of making electricity, nuclear and renewable, but that is going to take decades and the rural human need is now<<

C'mon, Mister Brumett join me. Ark is the ugly girl who puts out too often and never gets invited to the dance. If this electricity, like the electricity from the Mena coal-fired plant, is going to be transmitted to Texas then we are soooooo backward indeed. I wonder if Gov. Beebe celebrates that?

I bet Texas celebrates that. Getting the coal-fired electricity and none of the CO2. I bet they are gonna ride the ugly one until it's worn out.

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Actual 'environmentalists' aren't voting for Beebe anyway. He could win their votes with a little nod toward progress for the state, but I'm not holding my breath in the coming cloud of mercury.

The Democrats who kinda wannna care about the environment and voted for Beebe, trust me, are not looking at this coal plant as anything but a tasteless insider play by the energy lobby. Their fingers would at least hover in the voting booth next time if a supposedly Democratic administration hands the energy lobby yet another win-win that equals lose-lose for the health of citizens.

Considering that is a big chunk of smart Democrats, aren't those are the voters who might help Mr. Beebe make the right decision? Maybe a little more shouting from these guys would help. As Brummett notes, the name of the game apparently is power-politics. I guess it's too much to ask that they simply demand a better standard of living, decent health of citizens, a stand against the people wanting to be enriched by dangerously fouling our air, water, wildlands, wetlands (read hunting and fishing areas) to serve Goddam Texas?

This is an idea whose time has passed. We could do everyone a huge favor and just move on. But, if you are expecting leadership out of Beebe, that ship has sailed. It is just not in his genes (maybe his jeans.) Much like his predecessor, power has changed him very little. He just is who he is. Get over it and move on. If you decide leadership is important then you are going to have to find some other way to provide it. Poor Vic is our only claim to political courage in Arkansas and he is about to be a very busy man.

Last week I called a friend in SWARK to ask about this. He said, "everyone down here is for it because of the jobs it's going to create." He then added that the mercury and other contaminates are just going to be blown toward Little Rock or Pine Bluff anyhow, and he laughed.

So our public policy will be to spend some resources and environmental capital to build a plant that will largely serve Texas, spread its health threats across Arkansas, and we're to just go on acting as if business as usual is acceptable.

It's not.

What's wrong with the Pickens Plan and other measures promoting wind and other alternative energy solutions? Our energy and environmental challenges are linked and it's time we realize it and address it accordingly. I have actually attended some meetings of the Global Warming Commission and they are trying to accomplish that - but there are some (named in Brummett's piece) who don't even believe global warming exists. Their next meeting is this Thursday in the Capitol - it should provide some excitement as it votes on a final report for the Guv to digest.

It's not too late for us to do right, but it's close. If Beebe allows something like this plant to be built, he should bust his butt to take the lead promoting other alternative energy plans, and start right now.

When people are poor, sometimes they turn to prostitution instead of more "respectable" occupations.

SW Arkansas is like that, too. She's pulling up her dress in the alley because there's a $20 to be made.

Three words folk:The Pickens Plan

Oh just for fun

WILL THIS PROPOSED PLANT USE CLEAN COAL?

If so, please come join me as I roll out (up) an new marketing venture for

SAFE CIGARETTES.

That's a good fit isn't it. CLEAN COAL and SAFE CIGARETTES.

.

That's the thing eLwood, this plant will not be capturing the emission - the coal isn't going to be sequestered. If it's not sequestered, it can't be called "clean".

It will be VERY interesting to see how the commission members vote.

"SW Arkansas is like that, too. She's pulling up her dress in the alley because there's a $20 to be made."

But I'd argue this is more like rape. Beebe et al selling Arkansas' most defenseless citizens (money/power wise) to the highest bidder...to have their way with and then discard the mess. As long as the pimps' get their share of the loot...it's a go.

A wise person told me that environmentalism is a rich person's problem. Guess it's all Maslow in play.

It doesn't take an environmental genius to figure out that if Texas doesn't want the coal plant, we sure don't want it. There are better ideas/ways to get energy...but this is all about making the quickest bucks for a handful of greedy bastards.

(Nor is the Beebe administration likely to put the environment ahead any industrial development desired by the lobby branch of government, where Beebe's power and friends lie.) <<

Looks as if Mister Mike may be setting him self up to be swept away with the Great Reformation
that is going to take place in 2010-2012. By then we will either be a complete Corporate State
or cleaning it up will be the order of the Day. This election cycle is an introduction only. Perhaps not even that, just a prelude.

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The ridge crests of the Boston and Ouachita Mtns. are very suitable for windpower generation.

I like your idea elwood. I hope you are right. There is a lot of work to be done if there is a political will to do it.

Tough call - 400 jobs on the one hand, or the health of an entire ecosystem on the other?

CLEAN coal & SAFE cigs - GOOD one eL!!! As is often the case, we bloggers got in on THIS act well before the MSM (Brummett)...originally posted in the aftermath of Ike, by.......ta-da - ME!! ;>) Ref the PowerLess post on 9/14 by Lindsey Millar. Oh, yeah, and JB misspelled the Perp's name!

Here you go:

Petit Jean Electric - Van Buren County, ours went out for the 'final' time around 3 a.m. Came back for good a bit past noon.

Since we're on electric service, anyone part of a co-op tired of the endless lobbying against any innovative offset to CO2 emissions from the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (the Co-op "umbrella" group) CEO/President Gary C. Voigt?!! We've replaced a fair and member-oriented man who supported the Co-ops effectively for many years with a lobbying, anti-environmental ideologue. He cites non-existent numbers in questionable studies to promote his campaign in favor of 'dirty' energy, using all the ideologues' bogeymen - the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore, the Kyoto Protocol - without giving a fair shake to the other (environmental) arguments and science. Sorta like George the Lesser poo-pooing global warming until he had to SLIGHTLY acquiesce...

And here's the kicker: "our" publication Rural Arkansas (run by Voigt) will NOT publish any contrary suggestions, studies, member input, etc. When you then factor in that he is "enabled" by the state co-op heads who actually EMPLOY him, they've pretty much shut down any avenue for clean energy messages. {Applause from the wingnut right}

check it out...this guy is hiding in the usual spot of the status-quo advocate: waiting as "...new studies come to light and research continues to be done." Ever hear of the 'process' of painting the Golden Gate Bridge? When you reach the end, you go back and start over...endlessly - sorta like what Voight supports, while tolerating NO alternative possibilities.
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Posted by: Larry [TypeKey Profile Page] | September 14, 2008 03:46 PM

Well,
since it appears the Safe Cigarette people are gonna win down in Hempstead....wait.

They need jobs and the name begins with Hemp....what are waiting for! Believe me the
Hemp in Hempstead is safe and clean. Ropes , fabrics, hippie low impact culture..think
music festivals year around. Bead manufactures, incense sales.

.

You're cracking me up, eL - but watch out for the Drug Warriors - 872,000 "hemp" arrests in the US last year!! ;>)

Anyway, just sent to Beebe:
RE: the coal-fired electric generation plant, et al

There are SEVERAL better approaches to this, but we know you won't get any from your bogus Global Warming Commission, just like we get NO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION from the ADEQ or the ANRC - you can change their names, but they still SUCK and only serve the "bidness" interests!!!

You are getting BURNED here, and may want to check it out:
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2008/09/beebe_feels_the_heat.aspx

How about some actual LEADERSHIP instead of punting to the usual suspects?

I also note there is no ENERGY subject in your various topic pull-down selection menus...
AND we shouldn't HAVE to give you our Phone # to send you comments!!

Brummett's article and this blog are very timely for me as I had been saving my copies of Rural Electic magazine till I could find out who to best express my outrage to. I have already contacted both senators' offices to protest Voigt's articles. I can't believe that we have a so called leader in the field of electrification who is preaching the idea of coal-fired power plants. I have to wonder what Voigt's true interest is in this out-moded, scientifically obscene idea--it certainly isn't the health and long-term welfare of the people of the state. larry is right about Voigt using questionable studies to back up his point. He has ignored the true facts.

I understand the people of SW AR being willing to make a deal with the devil for jobs--folks have to eat, but the future toll is too great for all of us.

In the Energy Act of 2005 All AR members of the US House and both Senators Lincoln and Pryor voted to give clean coal:

A) 200,000,000.00 per year.

B) $1.6 billion in tax incentives for investments in clean coal facilities

C) Seeks to increase coal as an energy source while also reducing air pollution, through authorizing $200 million annually for clean coal initiatives, repealing the current 160-acre cap on coal leases, allowing the advanced payment of royalties from coal mines and requiring an assessment of coal resources on federal lands that are not national parks;

In just one bill. No telling what else they have done.

There is no such thing as clean coal... it's like saying Bush is a community organizer... or Mark Pryor doesn't condone torture of men women and children.

How much money in campaign contributions do you suppose AR congresscritters and senators received from the coal industry?

I'll bet it was less than one percent... and we the people paid both the coal industry and all our politicians to fund the toxification of our air, soil and water.

"If I owned both Texas and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in
Hell," General W. T. Sherman

Well, it looks like Arkansas is about to make its air Hell on earth
so our richer, more influential neighbors can turn their Bush
McMansions lights on.

"Yessah masser Texan, may I eat some mo' of your coal dust pie?,"
said the still in the dark Arkie.

I went to the ADEQ hearing in Hope last Thursday. Check out the video at the link in my name for one of the coal plant supporters. Needless to say I sat there with my jaw dropped. I thank God that such a person is not "educating" my children.

Well, seems like he is educating someone's kids. I wonder Rod if he considered that Flint Creek electricity is sold in Okla while Arkies get the fumes? Unbelievable!

Clean coal vs. dirty coal; clean coal is more expensive and has less sulfur. Carbon dioxide sequestration is still a taxpayer financed pipe dream; nobody wants to pay for it. Coal is cheap and dirty, like many Arkansan's expectations. Bottom line: if prostitutes don't believe they can do any better, they're probably correct.

"The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes. " Stanley Kubrick

This comment is for the Ark Times: the environment is important, but it is unsurprising that Beebe (who I support) doesn't side with it here. The real story is the more cost-effective alternatives that have been swept under the rug by the APSC at SWEPCO's request. These are two: (1) use of the excess capacity at Union Station Power Plant (gas fired), which requires some transmission upgrades or (2) use of a combination of new gas-fired capacity plus efficiency programs that save 1.5% per year of SWEPCO total sales. There is substantial evidence that either of these would save ratepayers money (yes, despite the volatile cost of natural gas) and, tangentially, be much more environmental.

Follow the money.

A coal plant may bring some short-term temporary gains to Arkansas, but the long-term big picture , and sustainable future for our children, appears to always get swept under the rug in American political power systems. The motto is: rape and pillage for a quick buck and to hell with the future.

The most comprehensive economic estimate of the impact of climate change, the Stern Review, clearly demonstrates that we must seriously begin shifting and investing toward clean energy and increased energy efficiency, and a failure to do so significantly risks a 20% global decline in GDP in coming decades.

Obviously, constructing counterproductive coal plants is the most regressive and backwards approach to mitigating climate change and halting global warming.

When will environmental sanity prevail?? I'm talking to you God. .. When?

Abel Tomlinson
Green Democrat Candidate for Congress, AR 3rd District
http://abelforcongress.com/

I too have been saving the Rural Arkansas magazines to figure out to whom to address complaints. The last commentary used some of the most laughable reasoning and studies to promote a pro-coal agenda. There was not even a gesture toward balance or, heck, accuracy. I'm amazed that the co-op can get away with spending member funds to promote a political stance. The misinformation is published as "commentary," but without any options for other information...which translates to "propaganda."

In this day and age, it is incredibly sad that Arkansas is going to let itself be saddled with yet another dirty coal plant. I'm a nurse, who takes care of the PEOPLE who are harmed by pollution -- from tiny babies to elderly folks. The co-op would lead us to believe it's only those 'green-meanies' who are against such a step back to the dark ages. Actually, it's everyone near (and downwind) of the plant who should be actively protesting.

Clean coal & Safe Cigarettes, indeed.