Pruitt's EPA picks Winners (Coal), and Losers (Clean Air/Water)

Come on folks, this is an easy one, and we've been letting Republicans get away with it for years...think about it: The absurdity of striking a "balance" between clean water and air for a few extra jobs and cuts to regulation. Let's see..."a little" dirtier water and air in exchange deregulation and possible jobs?

"Balance?" Nope. And yet we tolerate dumb ass statements by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, heck every right winger, everyday:

“As EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt is working to strike an appropriate balance between protecting water and air, and preventing the kind of job-killing overregulation,” McConnell said, according to CBS News, adding that Pruitt has been working to “stop the war on coal in its tracks.”

And yet, a new UCS analysis found that humans can effect climate:

Between 2008 and 2016, 17 percent of US coal capacity retired. Another 4 percent converted to other fuels, mostly natural gas. These closures led to:

-80 percent less sulfur dioxide, a source of acid rain,

-64 percent less nitrogen oxide, a key component in smog,

-34 percent less carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas.

Clean Coal Lie Exposed by Coal Baron: Trump shot off his mouth again, without thinking, stirring up his mindless base:

Trump boasted, “We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, and it’s just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine, where they’re going to take out clean coal — meaning, they’re taking out coal, they’re going to clean it — is opening in the state of Pennsylvania.” 

Another Trump Lie: Take it away Murray Energy's CEO, and "member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — which has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to persuade the public that clean coal is the solution to global warming:"

Coal baron says carbon capture and storage ‘does not work’ and ‘is just cover for the politicians.’ While President Donald Trump continues to tout “clean” coal, coal baron Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, the country’s largest privately held coal-mining company, says it’s just a fantasy.

“Carbon capture and sequestration does not work. It’s a pseudonym for ‘no coal. It is neither practical nor economic, carbon capture and sequestration. It is just cover for the politicians, both Republicans and Democrats that say, ‘Look what I did for coal,’ knowing all the time that it doesn’t help coal at all.”

Oh, don’t forget how well the move to “clean coal” is going:

Mississippi pulled the plug on one of the country’s biggest CCS efforts last month after the company spent billions on trying, and failing, to make it work. Mississippi utility regulators finally figured out the best way to make the state’s wildly expensive “clean coal” plant much cleaner and more affordable: Skip the coal part entirely.

Free Market Winners and Losers? Nope: Former Republican, turned Democrat, and then Republican again Gov. Jim Justice posed this not so free market idea based on the fear the eastern energy grid might not be secure:

Energy Department Secretary Rick Perry Tried, but failed, to backup Trump's EPA:

Energy Secretary Rick Perry ordered up a study of the reliability of the nation’s electrical power grid. The coal and nuclear power industries had been arguing that the system faced challenges that required special breaks for their energy sectors.

The study was released, and it found the energy grid is in pretty good shape. Wind and solar power are playing an important role on the grid. Cheap natural gas, not government regulation, is primarily responsible for the closing of coal-fired plants … alternative sources like wind and solar are cheap, clean and growing, and appliances are more energy-efficient, meaning energy use is down.

And again, for all those “free market” right wing purists…let's spend taxpayer money on dying industries:

The coal and nuclear industries have been arguing that they need better compensation for the reliability of their energy contribution … the nuclear power industry, which accounts for 20 percent of the U.S. electrical supply, are extraordinarily expensive, and older plants are closing. Illinois is among the states subsidizing aging nuclear plants just to preserve jobs. market forces make such investments dicey.

The real reason for the Decline of Coal!!!

John Oliver continues to do the work news networks should be doing. If you thought renewable energy and low natural gas prices were the big reasons the coal industry is taking a hit, well, that's only part of the story:

John Oliver, HBO and Time Warner have been sued for defamation for allegedly executing a "maliciously planned attempt to assassinate the character and reputation" of an Ohio coal company and its boss during a long-form story about the industry on Last Week Tonight's June 18 episode ... accusing Oliver and HBO of a "callous, vicious and false" attack on the coal industry, part of their "most recent attempt to advance their biases against the coal industry and their disdain for the coal-related policies of the Trump administration."

Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment lampooned the Trump administration's effort to revive the coal industry, saying coal has declined over decades as other energy alternatives have advanced. He also jokingly likened coal to "cocaine for Thomas the Tank Engine."

Murray's claim that President Trump "gets" the coal industry was caustically dismissed by Oliver on the show. "Uh, hang on there, Bob, no he doesn't. He barely gets what mining is," Oliver said.

Clinging to the past, WMC loyalty to Coal Industry may cost the state money, jobs.

You've got to be kidding. We're now expected to treat as serious research, a right wing think tanks study predicting big job losses due to coal regulation? The Heritage Foundation is the same group that created the basic structure of the Affordable Care Act, mandate and all, and later denounced it as unconstitutional. Yea, whatever's convenient guys.

The low life lobbyists at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, who are dead set on clinging to the 20th century fossil fuel model of coal in our state, are now whining about the cost of keeping coal as an energy source. What the...?

Never mind the millions of premature deaths caused by coal pollution.

Kurt Bauer, President/CEO of Wisconsin’s Chamber of Commerce – WMC – issued the following statement regarding the study’s findings:

“The war on coal will hit Wisconsin’s employers and families harder than those in any other state. These EPA policies, which will have little to no impact on global climate, are sapping the lifeblood of our manufacturing economy. In light of these newly found results, WMC once again calls on the EPA to consider the impact its regulations will have on thousands of working Wisconsin families and job creators.”

After reading stories like this, I often try to imagine what our countryside and air would look like if these guys were in charge. China may be the closest example of their environmental position, from Market to Market:



This is the price of doing nothing:

The use of Coal cooling.

While Murray Energy blames Obama for the coal industries problems, laying off 165 workers in protest, surely he must be aware of the real problem. I think the buggy industry went through something like this once…

Reuters: A new report on the economic viability of U.S. coal-fired power plants shows as much as 59,000 megawatts may be ripe to retire in the next few years, the Union of Concerned Scientists said on Tuesday. UCS said between 153 coal units, and 353 coal units in 31 states, would no longer be economical and therefore, candidates to be shut.

"Our analysis shows that many of these ripe-for-retirement units may already be uneconomic even before considering the cost of pollution controls," UCS said, estimating that even without new pollution controls, "23,400 MW are already more expensive to operate than existing natural gas plants."

Coal-plant output has been declining for several years as new pollution standards were formulated and gas prices plunged to the lowest level in a decade with expanded production from new fields.

And look at the conservative states that want to retire coal:

Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Michigan may see the most coal-plant retirements, the study said. Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio also have uneconomic coal generation, UCS said.

Dear Lord, help Murray Energy’s Laid off workers get used to being “takers” who “outvoted the Producers.”

The founding fathers fought to free corporate people from the taxes of the king…or Obama in this case.

So why has the Lord forsaken business interests, like Murray Energy in the presidential election?

Murray Energy laid off 163 workers.

WestSideStory:  Chief Executive Officer Robert Murray read a prayer to workers that asked God’s forgiveness for the decisions that the company was forced to make to preserve the very existence of enterprises that God has helped them build. He did this during a conference call. the company’s CEO read a prayer. Here’s the complete text:

Courier: “Dear Lord: The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals [sic] of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.

We are a Country in favor of redistribution, national weakness and reduced standard of living and lower and lower levels of personal freedom.

My regret, Lord, is that our young people, including those in my own family, never will know what America was like or might have been. They will pay the price in their reduced standard of living and, most especially, reduced freedom.

The takers outvoted the producers.

Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build. We ask for your guidance in this drastic time with the drastic decisions that will be made to have any hope of our survival as an American business enterprise.

Amen.”

That employers can dismiss workers on a whim, on the basis of speculation, for the sake of retribution, or to make a political point, is simply wrong. When businesses don’t like the decisions we make democratically, they withdraw the resources we need to work and thrive, often shipping them abroad, until they get their way. 

Here's Ed Schultz:

Goodbye to Coal, and premature deaths, bronchitis, asthma, ozone, mercury in fish, arsenic in water...

Whether you like it or not, fracking has taken off, the energy industry is making money hand over fist and they’re inadvertently cleaning up the environment. Besides lower energy bills due to the glut of natural gas, American’s are seeing a lot of new jobs created around the country too.

Sadly, many are going to miss coughing up coal dust, acid rain, global warming, toxic air emissions, ash; sludge; 500 tons of small airborne particles which can cause chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death; hydrocarbons which form ozone; 170 pounds of mercury (that) can make the fish unsafe to eat; 225 pounds of arsenic which will cause cancer in one out of 100 people who drink water. 

Not so fast…from the conservative online zealots at Newsmax:

Coal Miner's Wife: 'EPA has Absolutely Destroyed our Way of Life'
Coal country is hurting, and the people who live there want the whole nation to know it. Thousands of miners have been laid off this year across Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, many with little hope of getting their jobs back as power plants and the coal mines that once fed them shut down. Now the families, friends and business operators who depend on those miners are planning a multi-state show of solidarity they hope will be heard in Washington, D.C., and beyond. Huge crowds wearing miners' stripes and fluorescent "United for Coal" T-shirts will line up Oct. 13.

Like the industry surrounding the horse and buggy and fur traders, dirty energy like coal is obsolete. Thanks in part to climate change, science, and the following…:

The industry was already enduring a seasonal downturn after a warm winter … It faces growing competition from cheap, abundant natural gas … struggling with the EPA's crackdown on permitting for mountaintop removal mines, tougher clean-water standards, old inefficient power plants. 

Anyone have a problem with putting an end to that list? Ah, well, yes...

28-year-old coal miner's wife Tracy Miller of Keokee, Va. said, “the EPA has absolutely destroyed our way of life." Posts on every state's page are heavy with anti-Obama sentiment.

The media added to the perceived problem of EPA regulation:

Reuters is running the headline: "More US coal plants to retire due to green rules-study." But the group that authored the study says the additional expected retirements are "Due To Low Natural Gas Prices," not Environmental Protection Agency rules.

Ohio Coal Miners from Murray Energy forced to donate wages to Republican Campaigns.

Scott Walker and the Republican Authority whined and complained about how unions forced public employees to pay union dues. Many of those employees were Republican, and they resented contributing their hard earned dollars to Democratic political campaigns. That's why they passed Act 10, Walker's attack on collective bargaining.

Act 10 may be on hold for now, but Republican attempts to limit campaign funding for Democrats won't end there. Still...

...what if corporations turned it around by requiring every employee to contribute their hard earned money to Republican campaigns? What an idea. Besides being hypocritical, it's dirty politics. Who knows, this could catch on nationwide.

Here's Ed Schultz with the New Republic's Alec MacGillis: