The tipping point (again + again)

"The hated coal. The stuff which has made our country great. Kept millions from freezing. Now our President hates it and wants it dead..."

Here we go again. Mr. "I have a pen and a phone" is going to try an end run on Congress so he can get our climate change "fixed". We will have reached a tipping point once again. But our tipping point involves more than just our President. It is this entire leftist way of thinking. So before I get into our energy killing President, a quick story.

In Sunday's paper was a fairly good article about baby boomers buying RVs. Some very modest, some not so modest, and some giant 5th wheels. We have friends who have owned them. We have toyed with (and still are) doing some RV travel. Ever since I was a kid in 1954 and saw the movie staring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, The Long, Long Trailer, I thought that owning a trailer would be a great way to see America.

But hold the phone. For every buzz, there is usually a buzz killer. Yesterday in the paper was an editorial letter penned by some loon living in Grand Marais. The letter went on to say that baby boomers who own RVs are selfish and stealing the environment away from the next generation. RVs, like coal powered energy plants, are carbon footprint cheaters. They pollute just so "people of privilege" can see the countryside at the expense of others. Yes, it is chapter one from the famous liberal play book. The "zero sum" game. You have to lose so I can win. 

Now back to our President. I will give him credit for one thing. Even though few took him seriously while he was campaigning, he did threaten to kill our coal industry. And he is succeeding. This new rule he wants enacted is a whopper. It would cut emissions from power plants by 32% from 2005 levels to 2030 levels. That is even greater than the 30% cut he wanted earlier. Should this unconstitutional action survive the courts, the sequence of events will be devistating.

First off, we still get anywhere from 25% to 30% of our total energy from coal. By eliminating coal, the deficit will have to be made up from something. And since 2030 is only 15 1/2 years away, that "something" does not exist today. We have tinkered at the margins with renewable energy. But we will need a whole lot more "tinkering" for evolving technologies to plug all the holes in our energy dyke.

The next thing that will happen is we will arrive at 2030 with inadequate energy resources. Brown outs will be normal. Possibly black outs in some areas of the country. The cost of electricity will be through the roof. The poor will not be able to afford basic power. Progressives in Congress, feeling responsible for this mess, will agree that this is not fair. The poor should receive subsidies for this now very expensive commodity. And the subsidies will be paid for by - you guessed it - the rest of us.

But by that time, there will not be enough of "the rest of us" to pick up the slack. The economy will teeter and then fall. Our economy was made strong by cheap, abundant energy. And it will fall from the lack of it. All this because of a leftist myth called "man-made global warming".

Keep a sharp eye on this one folks. Watch to see how the states react. If this regulation stands, it will hurt us long after Obama is gone. Obama's fundamental transformation of our country is almost complete. And we will never be great again, never be rich again, should this succeed.