The 28% Solution

"If the statists have their way, soon we will all live vertically, ride on trains, and the elite will be allowed to drive smart cars only on Sundays..."

As the Gipper would say when he debated our state son Fritz Mondale, "Well, there he goes again." But I am not talking about Fritz. I am talking about Barak Hussein Obama. In case you forgot, the man in charge with the "phone and the pen". Rumors are circulating that in yet another unconstitutional and unilateral act, our President will skirt Congress and sign us up to an impossible "global warming" goal. Yes, he wants to sign us up to a 28% reduction in carbon emissions starting in 2020. That is only a scant five years away.

Okay. This is where the Common Core math becomes really fuzzy. We are going to sign up to cut our carbon emissions by 28%, right? But the US Energy Information Administration (USEIA) is projecting our energy usage will keep increasing. By how much? According to the USEIA, 29% by 2040. The bright spot according to the USEIA is the rate of electricity will decrease, but overall usage will continue to increase.

Some might ask how this is going to work. As of 2014, we are still getting 39% of our electricity from coal. To reduce the carbon footprint by 28% using mostly coal based power plants, would be an energy disaster for this country. But who cares? We will have placated the global statists at the UN.

No problem for the greenies. We will just shutter those evil coal power plants and replace them with wind. Right now we are getting a whopping 4% of our electricity from wind. This technology has been around since 1970 and it is still stuck in the muck. It is expensive, has a ton on NIMBY issues, and has ugly externalities of production (like dead birds).

And what about our cars? The affordable electric car coming soon? Oh, that is right - they need to be charged daily from electricity generated from coal burning power plants. Plus the dirty little secret which is not being told is this. Battery production to power cars is expensive and dirty. Yes, to make the lithium batteries required to power a car further than just down your driveway should make the EPA shudder.

Or we could just make cars cheaper and lighter like the Smart Car. In fact, we could make the Smart Car even smaller. We could do that if one does not have to be burdened with passengers or a spare tire.

I guess this is why our President wants to use an "Executive Memo" to bind this country to this impossible goal. If this had to be run through Congress, Obama might not like the common sense questions that would be asked. Buckle up folks - we have another 587 days until we get a new President. Much more damage can be done in 587 days.