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5/21/2010
So what if WI buys tons of coal from Wyoming?
The sky is falling. Wisconsin spent $853 million on coal imports in 2008 – and of that, about $700 million went to Wyoming. Oh no. The Journal Sentinel’s headline Wisconsin ranks high for reliance on coal wasn’t quite as ominous as the Green Bay Press Gazette’s headline - Importing coal a drain on Wisconsin’s economy; state should work on renewable energy.
Because the state has no coal supplies of its own, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to import the fuel for power generation. Coal imports accounted for 68 percent of all power used in the state in 2008, research by the Union of Concerned Scientists found.
Does transporting coal require a passport and paperwork at every single border crossing? Gosh, you’d think we were the former East Germany or something. So instead of “importing” (importing? How about using the verb “buying?” – does that change the bias of the articles?) coal, we’re supposed to use Wisconsin’s resources to pay three times as much (or whatever it is) for the satisfaction of making “our own” fuel?
That’s ridiculous.
The report's authors conclude that all states would be better served if the money spent on coal were diverted to the development of renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs.
Aha! So there we have it. All this falderal might have something to do with this “Union of Concerned Scientists.”
The most vocal critics of the Union of Concerned Scientists assert that the organization harbors a liberal "pro-regulation, anti-business" agenda. In 2004, the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center called the UCS an "unlabeled left-wing activist group"; in 2007, the watchdog's founder L. Brent Bozell reiterated this assertion.In 2009, the conservative website NewsMax described the UCS as a "left-wing" organization that "receives substantial donations from liberal-leaning foundations."[32][35] Libertarian author and television personality John Stossel has also accused the organization of having a "left-wing" agenda.
(I’ve not included Wiki’s extensive cross links and references – check them out for yourself.)
So what if Wyoming – or Illinois or Iowa or Minnesota or Michigan - decided not to buy Wisconsin cheese? Or Wisconsin batteries? Or compressors? Or innovative paper products or converted paper products? Or motorcycles? Or snowblowers?
A cool article from yesterday’s Beloit Daily News brags about the Beloit and South Beloit (oh no, that’s across the border in Illinois!) hands that crafted a massive mining machine.
The 75 employees at DM Manufacturing welded, fabricated, assembled and tested a 408,000-pound plate press which will be shipped to southern Illinois on Friday to be used in mining operations, according to DM Manufacturing President Don Myers.
Don’t you think Illinois should be producing its own massive mining machine instead of “importing” one from Wisconsin? Geeesh.
So what if Wyoming – or Illinois or Iowa or Minnesota or Michigan - decided not to buy Wisconsin cheese? Or Wisconsin batteries? Or compressors? Or motorcycles? Or snowblowers?
Or Christmas trees? Did you see the article earlier this week talking about the guy suing Minnesota because he couldn’t sell "imported" Christmas trees there? You’d think our states were foreign countries! More ridiculousness, this time coming from a Minnesota municipality.
The Institute for Justice says it’s not only ridiculous, but is a violation of the commerce clause of our constitution. Play the 2 ½ minute video – it’s good.
This isn’t about importing coal from Wyoming. This is using protectionism and phony economics to force expensive “green” energy on Wisconsinites. Yes, let’s work to make good decisions based on good science and wise and accurate economics. But arguing against coal from Wyoming? That’s ridiculous.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Last year it was estimated by the CDC that there were 30,000 premature death due to coal fired utilities. In addition athsma attacks, respiratory distress and visits to the emergency wards are often related to coal fired plants. The Wyoming issue is not the key issue. Eliminating coal fired utilities is the issue. Women who live down wind from coal fired plants have wombs that would not pass the EAP standards for a healthy environment for children. Let's stop arguing trivia and move on to the real issue for our children and grandchildren, a habitable, clean, safe and unpoluted environment. Our children should feel free to breathe the air without fear of contracting a respiratory disease.
Billie (Fri May 21 08:02:05 2010)
Coal is not cheaper than wind. Coal is a dirty fuel. Dirty to extract, dirty to burn. And coal companies get away with literal and figurative murder that they never pay for. If the externalized costs to my air and my water are added to the price of coal it cannot compete with wind. Nuclear maybe can, but not coal. So get it right next time. Cheap isn't cheap when who you hurt isn't compensated. That's stealing.
dave allen (Fri May 21 09:35:34 2010)
So liberals continue to force the rest of us to deal with their expensive green garbage. Nothing new there!
If the real issue is respiratory health, opponents of coal should say so, and with their next clean gasp of breath should support nuclear energy. Folks, don't hold your polluted breath waiting for that to happen.
rono44o (Fri May 21 09:47:47 2010)
Dave Allen and Billie have me in teard over all the harm they say coal causes. I have COPD and never have I even thought that coal was to blame but they echo level one of the argument against coal or any other cheap fuel vs. the expensive solutions they champion, Notice they keep carefully away from atomic generated power. Fantastic strides have been made to clean up the air generated by coal. That stuff coming from smokestacks is steam and is not giving me asthma. Of course Wisconsin will get all kinds of jobs making windmills and other "ecofriendly" junk though not enough to make up for all the jobs lost to high cost power.
Richard Griesser (Fri May 21 09:55:26 2010)
Has the CDC estimated the premature deaths caused by utility bills tripling and throwing more people into poverty?
In matters of public policy collectivists outrageously disregard the causation-correlation of lower incomes approaching poverty and premature death. One might say that high taxes and regulation kill people.
There is no perfect solution, just a matrix of tradeoffs.
Speaking of local energy, Wisconsin currently produces ~800% more liquid solar energy (ethyl alcohol) than we consume. Wisconsin is a net **exporter** of transportation fuel.
Brian Heyer, CPA (Fri May 21 10:26:23 2010)
Richard,
Please read carefully what I wrote. I do say that nuclear is possibly the cheapest source when externalized costs are taken into effect. Your personal experience with COPD may have nothing to do with coal. Your observation of clean smokestack also may have nothing to do with whether there is pollution (CO2, sulpher oxides, mercury)These are are invisible. Cheap is not cheap when someone else pays the bill It's that simple. If you lived along an Adirondack lake poisoned and lifeless because of acid rain from Midwest coal plants you'd get it. Fortunately, after 15 years or so of cap and trade that situation is getting better.
dave allen (Fri May 21 10:27:08 2010)
More liquid solar energy than we consume. I love it Brian.
Jo (Fri May 21 10:57:53 2010)
Brian is right about poverty. I don't think that anything correlates more strongly with shorter life span than does poverty. If the greenies want to argue for cleaner air in the name of public health, then they should do it honestly -- debate the science of air quality, it's sources, the diseases to which it is linked, and the trade-off of cost (poverty) vs. improving the air.
This state-to-state trade imbalance stuff is pure nonsense. Pickup any -- and I mean ANY -- college economics introductory textbook and within the first three chapters the concept of how the ecomomic system works to everyone's advantage by having different people engage in the things they can do best will be covered. Wyoming should get it's cheese and paper from Wisconsin, Wisconsin should get wheat from Kansas and fuel from Wyoming. Minnesota should not try to grow their own oranges, just because they currently import them from Florida.
Energy "independence" makes sense for a nation, where strategic considerations of supply interruption must be taken into consideration. There is no such threat state-to-state. Wyoming is not going to cut us off.
tom sladek (Fri May 21 13:33:18 2010)
Mr. Sladek makes a good, basic economic argument for the most basic exchange of goods, i.e. coal. When talking about achieving an abundance of energy, nuclear, the energy of choice in the more socialized, liberal nation like France and other European nations, is far and away the most common economic source.
Apparently, no matter the choice apart from Solar and wind, boogeymen leap out of the bushes at the very mention of the nuclear source. Where are those boogeymen in Europe, do they not have visas? The American energy cabal has it's head up a very dark part of this planet. We need energy, conservation will go further to solve our energy needs than 50% of the bull they project.
Richard Parins (Fri May 21 19:02:27 2010)
Apart from the fact that nearly all of the coal money goes to other places (money that would be better spent here developing clean energy) and all of the pollution stays here, the strip mining of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming does great harm to its ranchers, water, air and wildlife.
For an in-depth look at what our buying of coal does to other places, see my article "King Coal" in Milwaukee Magazine, found online at the magazine's online archives or from a link on my blog, Kaufman's Gull, at kaufmansgull.com
John Kaufman (Fri May 21 19:41:47 2010)
Thank you for the link and article John.
Very good.
Mr Parins;
"Apparently, no matter the choice apart from Solar and wind, boogeymen leap out of the bushes at the very mention of the nuclear source"
Perhaps I did not read carefully but I saw no boogeymen in the article or comments. Appropriately, the boogeyman is in your imagination.
Dean Weichmann (Sat May 22 05:47:28 2010)
Brian,
I never saw such a preposterous unsubstantiated excuse for not dealing with the question at hand. If there is any correlation between dirty electricity costs and lack of poverty please tell me. I can tell you that Japan has high electricity cost and low poverty and high national wealth, Russia is the opposite, low cost electricity, high poverty. Europe is medium electricity cost and low poverty. Coal lovers simply refuse to acknowledge the fact that coal's costs are externalized. The coal lovers also seem to believe that the lowest costs anything is better than higher cost. It's a race to the bottom my friend, sacrifice everything for lowest cost, ignore the true cost regardless of the consequences. I admire your concern for the poor but please don't use your concern for the poor as an excuse for denying the favors the coal industry receives in order to preserve it's low cost banner.
dave allen (Sat May 22 07:03:35 2010)
This from John's article;
Professor Robert Williams of the Princeton Environmental Institute has calculated that coal plants, on average, produce about 13 cents of air polluting “harm” per kilowatt-hour of electricity. If this external cost, which does not include the costs of carbon dioxide, were added to utility bills, demand would probably drop like overburden into a stream.
I am still reading your article, John, I am impressed with the extent and depth.
Dean Weichmann (Sat May 22 08:30:01 2010)
Thanks, Jo. Now that you’ve unspin their spin, we can all have a hearty hoot at the Union of Scientific Socialists.
timbeaux (Sun May 23 11:08:51 2010)
Gosh Jo, I followed your link to the wiki on the UCS. Makes them look better than I thought before. Could you explain why you think that this link somehow discredits them? Maybe cuz Jerry Falwell "cautioned" against their stance on global warming?
Dean Weichmann (Sun May 23 19:17:46 2010)
Why would I be aiming to discredit UCS? Readers can form their own opinions. My goal is to inform. I believe one would think twice about the credibility of an organization which has been labeled by some as having a liberal agenda. The Wiki article contains extensive information, seems to me to be quite objective.
Jo (Sun May 23 20:45:45 2010)
Gee Jo if you wanted to show how prestigious UCS is then why did you quote the only part of the wiki that criticized it?
"Readers can form their own opinions. My goal is to inform"
You inform the readers of one fringe side of an arguement. Don't pretend that you are objective.
Dean Weichmann (Mon May 24 07:11:06 2010)
I don't mean to be personal, but Billies comments are so outrageous, that they have to be shown in the light of day.
Please don't quote figures that you have not researched
First, the only 30,000 number ( premature deaths).. you quote Billie ..appears in Liberal Blogs, not anywhere in the CDC report. (I read it)
Next, You may be refering to a old report from the 70's related to "working" in Coal mines during the 1970's
Passing this false information is pathetic
Incidently they do estimate that 47,000 people will die in America because they did not take vacines that were available to them. Can you tie that into coal plants somehow ?
rich (Mon May 24 17:36:33 2010)
I read with interest the comments about the UCS.
If you were not aware of their Left Wing agenda, perhaps you can read the following and observe the words used'
http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/missile_defense/policy_issues/star-wars-25th-anniversary.html
What organization would remember 25 years later and then offer a tirade about it?
Note how they minimize the North Korea threat.
Its a "political" group folks..pure and simple.
Richard Carlstedt (Mon May 24 17:53:54 2010)
Thanks for the link Richard, it was interesting. Why did you call it a tirade? Did you read it? Seemed to be a very rational analysis.
Dean Weichmann (Mon May 24 20:57:40 2010)
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