Arkansas Blog

Lordy, I do love cheap electricity. And I love having it when I flip the light switch. Those of us lucky enough NOT to live in the stratosphere of central Arkansas will have plenty of relatively cheap electricity when "we" finally get to complete "our" plant. Have any of you folks kept up with -- for example -- the cost of transmission lines for wind-generator plants? Of course not. And some people are fighting those because they present a danger to owls and eagles which might fly into the whirling blades. Coal-fired plants are the best way to generate plenty of cheap electricity, for now. But we cannot wait until tomorrow.
Wanna bet who has the cheapest and most reliable electricity? It's me 'n Cato and others lucky enough to be served by SWEPCO.

Tell you what Louie. Soon as Texas gets its fill of cheap Ark electricity you guys who will breath and eat all that nice mercury oxide and assorted dioxins will get the left overs Texas doesn't need. Go look at the transmission lines running thru properties all the way to the border.

Glen Hooks of the Sierra Club says "this is no time for more dirty coal plants." ... "Our environment, health and economy will be much better off if we start turning away from dirty coal and turning toward clean, renewable sources of energy."

So did Glen Hooks state publicly what renewable sources of energy to which he refers? Glen - please go on the record and state that you're actually for some kind of electrical power generation. We were told that natural gas was wonderful, then we find that getting the natural gas out of the ground, isn't such a swell process. Is the Sierra Club going to support nuclear power? Nuclear power sure is popular in socialist Europe, but I'd bet the Sierra Club opposes it as well.

The US is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Certainly some coal is more environmentally friendly than others. We can thank Democratic Senator Byrd for making it unfeasible to use the cleaner burning coal due that competes with the filthy coal being mined in West Virginia.

For the record, did Glen Hooks of the Siera Club drive a large SUV to the press conference?

It's really nothing but redistribution of wealth when one area benefits from 'cheap' electricity while the rest of us breathe dirtier air.

You are welcome to all the coal power plants you want -- just keep your polluted air within those confines as well, please.

Toshiba of Japan has developed a nuclear power generation reactor that has a foot print of 10 feet by 20 feet. It is right now generating power for a town up inside the Artic-Circle in Alaska.

The unit requires no cooling water, needs fuel only every 10 years and produces enough electrical power to supply a small town, large office building or several dense city blocks.

They are going to be all over Asia in no time and we are stupid if we do not take a serious look at nuclear power again.

Didn't I read recently that world coal reserves, or at least those which are not cost prohibitive to extract, might not be nearly as plentiful as folks thought? Renewable alternatives, whatever they may be (and these may well be geographically variable), and strict conservation practices would seem to be a more sensible plan for the future.
Just incidentally, the word "plan" is the key to this in my opinion. Just rocking along, allowing those who, in the short term, will benefit monetarily make the decisions for this country's energy future is, in a word, stupid.
But likely that's what we'll continue to do. Of course, we dare not do anything that might displace the movers and shakers in the energy industries. (Or in health care.) I will be very surprised indeed if we have the national foresight to forge ahead as we did when Russia lofted Sputnik in the late 1950s. So what will it be? Foresight or status quo? We shall see.

We've already cut our nose off to spite our face on non-polluting nuclear power. It's gone and it ain't coming back. With any succes, we can eventually get all nasty energy sources eliminated until only silverspoon hunting club owners can afford to keep the lights on.

Yep, there is a little more to this argument than clean and cost, its consumption, and not just direct energy consumption. Al Gore's private plane and 25,000 square foot mansion and, Sierra Club's giant SUV are clear symbols of a society unprepared and in denial on energy issues. How about the last ten years of McMansions?

We could turn this around very quickly if we stopped talking trash and vague generalities. Clean energy is LESS energy which is a very different society than we live in today.

The fact that we are even considering a coal plant should tell you that this is going nowhere fast. No one is ready to discuss this in any meaningful way.

I'm all for putting the hammer down on consumption and other bad things as long as I don't do without, that it's done in a way that suits my sensibilities and I can make some money off it.

At least I'm honest about my motives.

Is there not another such plant being built in some other region in Arkansas presently?

Louie, there is no such thing as "cheap" energy. We may not pay much in cash for our coal power, but we're paying with the degradation of our water & our air, with increased rates of asthma, with the destruction of mountains, & with the destruction of homes, jobs (yes, jobs!), and communities. Anyone who thinks that coal is cheap should take a long, hard look at West Virginia. Now, I don't have much money, but I would be willing to pay more for my energy, if that means paying less in environmental and health costs. And besides, if we just USE LESS ENERGY, our bills won't be so high.

We don't consider consuming a bad thing. Our economy is based on consumers. If we rise from the recession it will be on the backs of consumers. All of that consuming requires a lot of energy, a lot of growth. We are like the alcoholic who can't stop drinking or the glutton who won't stop eating, we need more, always more. This is not much of a recipe for reducing energy consumption or even being able to afford the public investment necessary to make a reasonable change. Just the taxes (or increased fees) necessary to pay for all of this will put a big dent in all the consumin' goin' on.

Cheap energy is over but we are not through enjoying the benefits.

Toss in health care reform, medicare, and social security funding and what do you have left for the consumer? The national debate will eventually have to include the consumer society. And, then what will the rest of the world do without a customer??

Party time isn't over yet. We haven't even had the depression yet. They will close down that coal fired plant when there are not enough customers to justify production, not before.

"Those of us lucky enough NOT to live in the stratosphere of central Arkansas . . ."

Now, ya can fuss and everthang all day and all night, Mr. Publisher, but ya ain't gotta go gittin' personal and hurtin' feelins up here where the Lord lives. I thank Satan and all that drankin' ore air on the Oklahoma line has done went and gotcha to whur you ain't a thankin' straight.

By-God, durangokid,
Pass me another of them weak Okie beers. I do have one other idea for cheap, non-polluting electricity. Why not have some of our central Arkansas bi-sexual, athletic non-foster parents pedal bicycles attached to pre-1970s car generators? Object: enough DC power to recharge a flashlight battery to shine on the shinannigans up at UCA.

Great to see your sense of humor is still intact, Louie!

Beebe's next campaign slogan:

Hey Hog fans, Cough up another lung biscuit and all your cash for the Texas wholesale electric market.

Sense of humor? Louie has none. He's dead serious. Louie, I notice SWEPCO is asking for a rate increase. The first one in 23 years. I think that's what really riles Louie's "stratosphere of central Arkansas." Everytime they turn around it's another rate increase or a shortage of power. Something all the danged time.....except from SWEPCO, of course.

These responses so far seem to be in somewhat of a disconnect from why a lot of us are worried about plants that spew carbon dioxide into the air. Additional greenhouse gases warm up the atmosphere which affects weather patterns and maybe responsible for some of the current changes in climate. They could be responsible for some of the garbage weather Louie has been experiencing this year and over the next few years, cause disruptive changes that will resuilt in Louie's produce prices going up as California's drought gets worse and the upper midweast becomes a desert. He will, of course, have saved so much money from his coal fired plant supplying electricity to Texas (so they get the better price from interstate pricing). Your power, Louie, will be coming from TN so they can get the higher rate on you. And unless the weather patterns improve in the TVA area, their energy costs are going to go through the roof. It will look like all those Enron traders will have jobs again.

I am dead set against Turk but also against the more complex than the tax code cap and tax legislation proposed by the CA and MA congressmen. The last I have heard is that they will not let AR include our two nuclear plants to count towards clean energy.

Could we be the cleanest state and be one of the most taxed states? What do you think?

PS. And also our hydroelectric power.

re: "Beebe's next campaign slogan"

That's about what I figured from one of you Eureka Springers. Light in the loafers, no account sack of monkey nuts. I'm the Governor of this Goddamn state and I'll do what I please. Do you hear me? I tell the Goddamn legislature when to wipe their measly asses. Didn't you see how I ran that Goddamn session. This is clean coal. So clean you could bathe with it. The only thing cleaner is the Fayetteville Shale. You are lucky to have me.

What's up with the "clean coal" ad banner on the Times Blog? Chesapeake pull their ads?

Governor, how'd the Arizona golfing vacation go? Heard through the grapevine that your game was a bit off. True? Did Harriman make the trip? Story is he tried to back out. What's the deal ? Have you heard from the Desha Co. Dem Party chairman yet? They need to be added to the disaster counties, gov. Real bad. Almost forgot: tell Masingill I'm ready to collect on that cold one he's promised. Travs game will be great.

Thanks for askin' Drango. That whole golf trip story was a cover. Me and Morril was really studying up on desertification. We figure we're gonna get in with Ol' T. Boone on selling water to the shit kickers after everybody stops eating chicken and Tyson closes up shop. We figger if we can pollute the water in Arkansas bad enough we'll get a whole lot of locals to move out of state. Then when all the Californians move here we'll sell 'em reconstituted water made out of soybean products.

I like the efforts of the Sierra Club nationally but it is hard to take them serious locally while they have Glen Hooks employed as their environmental lobbyist. He is the same Glen Hooks that was fired as Executive Director for the Democratic Party of Arkansas isn't he ?!?!?