No Runny Eggs

Attention. Attention bloggers. Attention Wisconsin bloggers. With the successful launch of the Blog n Grog, there are now two opportunities to drink with your favorite bloggers (and most of the time, me) each month:

– Drinking Right – The second Tuesday of each month (this month, it’s the 13th), 7 pm, Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee
– Blog n Grog – The last Tuesday of each month (this month, it’s the 27th), 7 pm, Neighbors Social Club, 260 W Main in Waukesha

Because I’ll be out of town the country the last week of May, I’ll unfortunately miss the Blog n Grog. Don’t let that stop you from attending one or both of these events, though.

A coal based electric plant was approved yesterday  for Marshalltown IA.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that in order to satisfy their rabid global warming sycophants, the board required the power company to also increase their wind generation power 250% by the plant’s opening, use 10% biomass within 7 years of opening and pay for any costs that may be added through implementation of nonsense cap and trade regulations.

I’m guessing each of the commission members drove to the meeting. I’ll bet each of them paid close to $3.50/gallon for their gas when they last filled. I’ll be each of them have complained in the last couple of weeks about the increase in gas prices. Even with all of that knowledge, one of the commission mental midgets was thinking:

Darrell Hanson of Manchester, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said he favored setting aside the plant proposal for three or four years to see what carbon limits Congress passes and to analyze other market forces. "The safest and most reasonable course would be to delay for three or four years.

Yup, let’s wait.   Gee, that’s working so well for gas prices.   Gee, if we could magically say it was OK to start drilling or refining additional oil today, it would be 3-8 years before that effort would have any impact on gas availability.   Yeah, let’s not make a decision today.   It’s too hard and there are people sitting in the room who might not like me.

Chickenshit!

It’s people like this Commissioner who bitch about “Big oil’s profits” but won’t do a thing to change the equation.   They sit and hide, afraid of the Sierra club and militant “ecological” groups whose real purpose is to make sure that man curls up in a fetal position in some corner of the globe and leaves the animals to rule creation.

If the increase in energy prices of the last year don’t wake people up to the fact that we need to increase capacity and that the cost of dawdling is nearly crippling, I don’t know what will.   I do know it’s time for some folks to “grow a pair” because anything short of “ABSOLUTELY NOT” is going to be met by wails from the “ecological” groups.   Even with the ridiculous additional requirements put on this project the “ecology” groups weren’t satisfied:

Carrie La Seur, a lawyer for Plains Justice, which opposes the plant, said it is "most likely" the group will eventually sue to block construction of the plant. First, the group will join the Sierra Club, the Iowa Environmental Council and the Iowa Consumer Advocate’s office in fighting an air permit with the state and opposing the plant during before the utilities board this fall.

In the words of Thomas Paine it’s time to “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” Doing nothing is no longer acceptable. Doing nothing or cowering in the corner sniveling about “Global Warming” will only ensure that we leave a country for our children that is unable to meet the demands of the future; and we’d be the first generation in America to do that. That’s not a history book footnote that I’m interested in being a part of.