The Audubon Society had a luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion yesterday. It got the usual hospitable reception from Gov. Mike Beebe, but no encouraging words for the group’s fight against the poison-spewing coal-fired power plant SWEPCO has begun building in southwestern Arkansas.

Beebe said the alternatives are not in place to replace coal power completely.

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“You’re not going to do away, as much as you want to, with coal tomorrow. It’s not going to happen, people,” he said.

Beebe’s Department of Environmental Quality is the biggest remaining obstacle to this plant. Other states have decided to make a break from coal. Doesn’t sound like we should expect similarly visionary leadership from the Beebe administration.

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