I hate to get too edgy in this blog as I don't want to offend my friends and loved ones with my rants. With that preface here we go. An article in the NYTimes today really got under my skin. It seems our short sighted leaders have all found something they can pass in a bi-partisan fashion. These geniuses are going to pass a bill that provides the coal energy industry with the following , among other things:
" loan guarantees for six to 10 major coal-to-liquid plants, each likely to cost at least $3 billion; a tax credit of 51 cents for every gallon of coal-based fuel sold through 2020; automatic subsidies if oil prices drop below $40 a barrel; and permission for the Air Force to sign 25-year contracts for almost a billion gallons a year of coal-based jet fuel."
(for those of you who bash on welfare, that last little piece about the Air Force is worth (1,000,000,000 gallons / 42 gallons/barrel * $65/barrel) $1,547,619,050, how's that for corporate welfare?)
All this so the idiots running for president, including Obama, can say they made progress on securing America's oil independence. Do these guys have any idea what kind of damage coal mining does to our planet? Have they seen the creeks of southern Ohio or West Virginia running yellow? Hello, have they ever heard of Acid mine drainage? Have they seen what happens in WV when they remove the entire tops of a mountains to get at the coal seams?
Of course these the coal industry and the legislators are good and are going to get the support of environmentalists by saying that the emissions from liquid coal power plants is less and therefore they are better for the air we breath. Hello, it's not only about the burning of the coal, it's also about the extraction. Besides has anyone looked into the process of turning coal into liquid coal? What are the bi-products of that process?
Okay I'm done.
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Well I'm almost done. Anyone, of these yahoos who votes for this bill loses my support in the 2008 election!
Jim
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