Comments on: Biden Says No to Coal Plants in America

By: Eddisionklein

Eddisionklein — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:16:48 +0000

I agree with the statement given ih this blog-China is building two every week, two dirty coal plants. And it’s polluting the United States, it’s causing people to die.

By: obamanever

obamanever — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:47:40 +0000

Hello,
I am a registered Democrat from NE PA and I am a woman.I hope that the women who view these comments here this evening ready mine.
I am just writing to comment about something on CNNs channel this evening. I think the women will be interested to know that although Hillary is not even in this race any longer that CNN mocked and insulted her showing parts of her primary season, etc. So, I ask the women out there, can you really vote for a man like Obama who sexually bashed HIllary Clinton every time he had the opportunity? And, are the women going to remember to be enraged at the press and at Obama? The show aired at 7:30 my time, called Headline News, and I live in NE PA. They provided me with such assistance tonight as I canvas every possible woman voter I can to vote for John McCain! I thought CNN had the only impartial news on TV but how could I have thought when they still have a sexist pig like Anderson Cooper on their channel?

By: JRT

JRT — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:48:20 +0000

Solar panels (photovoltaic) sound great, but what do you do at night and on the days that the sun doesn’t shine?

By: Maskit

Maskit — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:28:41 +0000

I read with interest the idea that Nuclear Power is the answer. I live in a state from which we get the uranium to fuel nuclear power. My father helped build the very first uranium mining plant here in Colorado. There were two sites here, still are, I expect, as the mines were not played out at the time we stopped using uranium. I lived my whole growing years in a family who relied on that industry. I almost lost my father twice to accidents, and apparently, people have just forgotten the Three-Mile Island incident, the Chernobyl incident, or just plain don’t know or don’t care about the harm done to miners and millers who worked in the nuclear industry just a few years ago when we were still digging out the radioactive sand from under our houses here in Grand Junction.
My little town of Uravan, a place built by Uranium and Vanadium, is gone because it was a super-fund cleanup. The leakage from the settling ponds was threatening our ground water, not to mention the use of radioactive sand underneath the houses because it was such great “fill dirt.” We were not allowed to swim downstream from the plant because the water was so polluted, the fish had died (it took many miles for the water to be clean enough for fish to live). Also, the water itself was so nasty to drink, you only drank it with something in it for taste (this was before pre-filtered drinking water). One time, we left water in a jar when we went away for the weekend. When we came back, the water had rusted because of the mineral content. And nobody thought about the damage to those digging the uranium, preparing it, or what to do with the radioactive waste, which, as all of us discovered, was still radioactive. I speak from experience. I know about how much the industry could provide in jobs. However, when the uranium is spent, and our land is raped for its minerals, its oil, its coal, what then? What next?
How many of you know that there was a time in our history when people actually paid to go sit in a uranium mine hoping for a cure from the “invisible beams” it sent out. Perhaps they were on the right track, since we use a focused radiation technology to treat prostate cancer, but I guarantee you they were not getting focused radiation to specific tissue to kill it–just possible cancer, or horrendous side effects. Marie Curie (read your history), who obtained her uranium from Uravan, died from her discovery, from radiation, and our government tried very hard to defend itself against the claims of miners hurt by this industry, and this was not that long ago people, not even my lifetime. I am still a fairly young woman. Uravan only closed in the 1970′s. To show you the danger that we really did not know we were living with, none of the people in my block were allowed to take any part of the building or yard with them (my parents wanted to take the gate from our backyard, as a memento). They were told that it was all contaminated. Wonderful? Huh? I grew up there, until I went to college. My brother was there even longer than I. My husband and I often joke that he married me because she “glows in the dark, saves on electricity,” and then we laugh. But somewhere inside me sometimes I wonder, I truly do.
Lately, I have heard so much about how safe nuclear power is now, and what I hear Obama saying is that nuclear power is on the table, just that we have to be safe, truly safe, about the use of it. Look at our history people. That is what it teaches us. When they cleaned the mill up at Uravan, I knew someone who was involved in the cleanup. He told me that the people who cleaned up where my daddy worked, the yellow-cake driers (processed uranium for those of you who don’t know), wore radiation badges and protective suits to do so. The man who worked there told me that his badge came out black every time he worked there (meaning he would have gotten a lot of exposure). My father worked there in boots, pants, coveralls, and a shirt, with a hard hat. (He also had work gloves, I believe). After working there, in that highly radioactive environment, he came home, bringing the mud of the day with him on his clothes. His clothes went into the washer with my brothers’ and sisters’ clothes. Amazingly, we are still here, and still cancer-free. (Though my father has passed on). We received money for his radiation exposure, by the way, after he was gone. My father, thank heavens, was not affected, apparently (except for perhaps ruining his lungs in the ammonia tank explosion that happened there). His constitutional genetic makeup, lucky for him, was apparently resistant to the effects. Plus, because of having malaria in WWII, he was unable to work in the mines. Other people he worked with were not so lucky (my mother keeps track of former Uravanites who have passed on). Also, we, his children, growing up on and around tailings and settling ponds still might see the affects of that, and there are no benefits for us.
The town of Uravan is no more. The settling ponds are gone. The radioactive waste sits decaying somewhere, and, by the way, we still are not sure what to do with the spent results of what we draw out of the ground. We also got to see the results of the Chernobyl accident first hand, as well, in Germany. At the time of the twin towers falling that was where we were, watching my son get married, with a stay during that time at the home of my daughter-in-law’s family. Now I had always wanted to see the Black Forest and pick mushrooms. I had a geology teacher who had piqued my interest as a child. My hosts took me there, but they told me that, as far as picking mushrooms in the black forest and eating them, that was only allowed once a month because of the Chernobyl accident in Russia, and that it had only been recently the radiation counts in the mushrooms were low enough to allow that. I was amazed. After all, we were not in Russia, we were in Germany. They explained that when Chernobyl happened, it contaminated the ground clear down into the black forest, and that mushrooms pick up the radiation and store it. The radiation counts after Chernobyl didn’t allow anyone to pick and eat them because of the deadly effects. Mmmmmmm, and I am supposed to be trusting of nuclear power? Just trust that our government will take care of us? I think not. I hear you saying, but look at what it could mean to us, and I say. Yes, LOOK at what this could mean to us. Remember people, those who do not remember the lessons of history are bound to repeat them. Look at the banking problems. Look at the fact that we are still dependent on foreign oil when wind, water, and solar options are, and have been, available at least since the 80′s. (I should know we invested in a solar panel at that time, when the government gave us a tax break for energy investments). I live in a place with sunshine 320 days of the year. Put the active solar systems on our houses here and our town could light up its own lights (I would bet on this) and probably provide excess to people who have less fair climates. I hear my sister-in-law talking about drilling our way out. Once again, I wonder if any of you would like to have an oil derrick plopped down in your backyard, with the attendant insanity that would transpire. Here in Colorado, I saw a cow standing next to a derrick. How many of you are for sacrificing our tourist economy, the very land we live on and air we breathe, when we ourselves got into this by not being responsible about our buying, as well. How many of you are out there with some monstrous machine that eats gallons of gas and oil? I would bet more than are comfortable to admit it.
Finally, let me say that, like Obama, I believe in being responsible in getting us off foreign oil, helping us, middle America, with those tax dollars we paid into the big-oil industry. Think about what that could mean, really mean, to producing new jobs. It would be new industry, whether it is clean- (we must emphasize clean) coal technology (so that we don’t return to years of acid rain); bio-diesel; electric cars with perhaps solar generators for part of that energy, as well; hybrids; hydrogen-based cars; responsible use of nuclear energy (sans radiation burns, higher cancer deaths, ruining of the local ecosystem), safe drilling for oil offshore (keeping in mind tourist industry and extremely ugly oil derricks), and natural gas exploration (without drilling into the Rulison project or ruining the surrounding countryside for tourists [I have news for you, mineral deposits may go away, tourism is forever, if you remember to keep intact the scenery]).
There is a lot here, I know, but I don’t believe that Senator McCain knows or understands any of it, sad to say. This a complex issue, one that is not going to be easily solved with just a surface understanding of the whys and means of things. I wanted those of you reading to know and remember exactly what reviving the nuclear industry could mean to the country, the inherent danger in it. It is even another kettle of fish when it comes to clean coal. I think the idea of CLEAN coal usage is an amazing idea. I just don’t want us to return to that slash-and-burn approach to sources energy that people used to apply to the search for gold. (If you want to see what damage that caused to the environment, go up above the Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride areas and view the dump areas and toxic ponds where nothing grows. Some of these are cleaned up now, but there is still enough evidence for you to maybe see the downside of what all of you are so doggedly persistent in supporting. Pay attention to the scarring of the land, remember that in a truly “free market” there would still be no protections against poisoning both the land, and its people.
As scared as we are right now, we have a responsibility, I believe, as stewards of this land. A steward takes good care of the land because the land is the thing that ultimately shelters and feeds him. I tell you now, remember the land now, or we will all regret it later.

By: S. Kennedy

S. Kennedy — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:03:03 +0000

The answer is Nuclear Power, but unfortunately as with so many things, our leaders are either incapable of, or have no hope of educating our ignorant populace.

By: G. Maynard

G. Maynard — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:16:40 +0000

Why is the media so up in arms about an off-the-cuff comment Biden made while they’re not reporting anything about McCain’s long-term and sustained attack on coal jobs?
John McCain has been on the attack against the coal industry for years, starting with legislation he proposed in 2003–Senate Bill 139, the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003–that would have just about wiped out the coal industry in the United States.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration released an analysis of S. 139 in May, 2004, which said the reductions in coal production under the McCain legislation was estimated to be 78 percent by 2025. Since it takes coal miners to produce coal, that would mean a drastic reduction in employment, most of which would have fallen heavily on more labor-intensive mines like we have in Appalachia.
But Sen. McCain was just getting warmed up. He teamed up with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) just last year and proposed climate change legislation–Senate Bill 280–that once again took a meat-axe approach to Appalachian coal. In that bill, McCain specifically targeted Appalachian coal production for cuts of 30 percent or more, while encouraging production of coal from Wyoming, according to an analysis done of the legislation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Both Obama and McCain have proposed a variety of solutions to dealing with energy issues. They both say that they want to reduce reliance on foreign sources of energy and build an infrastructure in America that relies on a mix of sources to meet the ever-expanding energy needs of our nation, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gases.
But the devil is in the details, and once again Sen. McCain doesn’t measure up when it comes to the potential for coal–our nation’s most abundant energy resource–to continue to be the major contributor to meeting our future energy needs.
The kicker of McCain’s energy plan is to build 45 new nuclear plants across America by 2025, the first wave of 100 new nuclear plants he foresees. The negative impact on coal production and jobs from these plants will be extremely significant. And let’s face it–no matter what happens with respect to climate change over the next 50 to 100 years, the waste generated by a nuclear plant tomorrow will still be deadly to all life 10,000 years from now. Our distant descendants will likely be worrying about staying warm during the next ice age about then.
With the coming development of clean coal technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), America is on the brink of being able to use coal to generate energy without contributing any more greenhouse gases to the environment. Sen. McCain pays lip service to CCS, but the record shows that coal has a very limited future in John McCain’s vision of America.
Sen. Barack Obama, on the other hand, is from a coal state and clearly understands the long-term role coal can play in our nation’s energy future. He has pledged to fund development of CCS technology so that it can be deployed as soon as possible. He has said that America is the “Saudi Arabia of coal” and that we ought to be working as hard as we can to figure out how to use it for decades to come.
So the choice for coal miners, their families, their neighbors and everyone living in the coalfield communities throughout the coalfields of the U.S. Barack Obama is for the long-term future of your job and John McCain is not. Keep that in mind when you vote on Nov. 4.

By: Judge

Judge — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:02:41 +0000

$222,689,884,457 is the cost of the military-industrial complex. Democrat President Johnson expanded the Vietnam conflict and the military-industrial complex grew.
Republican President Eisenhower’s farewell speech warned the American public about the military-industrial complex. Democrat President Kennedy wanted to withdraw all the troops from Vietnam. There is always a question about the timing of President Kennedy’s assassination. President Johnson assumed the Presidency.
Obama in a recent speech stated he would send troops to Pakistan. Can this be just another Democrat that talks like President Johnson? President Johnson said he will bring the troops home from Vietnam and later decided to expand the Vietnam War killing Americans and Vietnamese. Obama stated I would return the troops from Iraq. Later he states he would send troops to Pakistan.
I do not trust Obama’s double talk. I voted for President Johnson and that was the last time I voted Democrat. President Johnson was unpopular because of his doubled standards and lies about Vietnam. Joe Biden finds it difficult to keep up with the changing rhetoric of Obama. It is NO Obama.
http://www.militaryindustrialcomplex.com/

By: Judge

Judge — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:09:22 +0000

GIGI, Never Forget….I hear the Democrats talk about Roosevelt pulling America out of the depression of 1929. However, I hear no words about President Johnson. President Johnson expanded the Viet Nam War to kill innocent Americans and Vietnamese for the profits of the Democratic war machine. Obama said to sent troops into Pakistan and he knows sending troops into Pakistan will expand the Middle East conflict. No one can win in Pakistan because you cannot fight a conventional war there. That means more money for the Democratic war machine and less money for American projects

By: Judge

Judge — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:55:55 +0000

wheelerx…has great faith in Obama/Biden crap. No one will tell China how to do business and how to keep their house. All I hear from the Obama/Biden crap is more distortions and lies about how they can make things better. We need realistic people in Washington that talk realistically.
One more credit to Joe Biden from his own words: There will be NO CLEAN COAL PLANTS in America. Joe Biden proves repeatedly that he and Obama are out of touch with the real world. Obama/Biden inflated promises will make a CHANGE that Americans will not like. All Americans will pay higher taxes, America will go into a deep depression and even a President Roosevelt will not be able to save America. Only the strategy of a President Ronald Reagan can save America from the crisis all Americans now face. One more President the Democrats do not want anyone to remember.
Moreover, Coal is an energy producing commodity that is essential to the economic well-being of the world. The major use of coal in the United States is for the production of electricity. It looks like the Democrats have an energy policy to reduce the use of coal and reduce the American way of life.
Wake up and smell the coffee….

By: wheelerx

wheelerx — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:02:43 +0000

I live on the west coast of Washington state, if you think a couple thousand miles is far enough away fron China’s coal plants you are sadly mistaken. We are already seeing the effects of the plants they already have and with more coming on a daily basis Joe Biden is absolutely correct that we best start figuring out a way to help China clean their plants up or we are the ones that get to choke on their fumes. This may be our last chance to save ourselves and the rest of the world, stop being so selfish and give a little thought to your children and grandchildrens future, at least with Obama and Biden they will have a “chance” at having a future. With McCain and Palin and the current situation of this world, it’s over baby, we’re talking Planet of the Apes if we are lucky!