Crossposted from Flopping Aces

According to this chart there are 20+ States that have a coal industry:

Including Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Indiana.

The coal industry as a whole has been worried about the downturn in new coal plants:

Others call the growing resistance to coal power worrying.

“It is a crisis for us because what we are not really focusing on is: Where is the electricity we need for the next 50 years going to come from?” said Gregory Boyce, chairman of Peabody Energy, at a “clean tech” conference recently in Palm Springs, Calif. “We view it as short-term and very unfortunate because we need to continue to build these new coal plants that are at least 15 to 20 percent more carbon-efficient than the plants they replace while we continue to work on technologies for the next generation of plants that are carbon-capture ready or that capture carbon and store it.”

With US energy demand growing about 1.2 percent a year, big utilities must get energy from somewhere.

~~~

Some in the power industry also say gas-fired turbines are less reliable when used for “base load” power the turbines that spin day and night and not just for peak loads.

“There’s a serious crunch with respect to having enough generating capacity coming in the next 10 years,” says Rick Sergel, chief executive officer of North American Electric Reliability Corp., which serves the federal government as chief overseer of the US electric grid. “If coal doesn’t play its role, it’s going to be a major issue.”

~~~

“If they don’t start building coal plants, it’s going to be an economic prosperity problem for the country,” says Richard Storm, CEO of Storm Technologies, an Albemarle, N.C., company that specializes in optimizing coal-fired power plants. “We need coal. Coal is a national treasure.”

and now they have even more reason to be worried: (h/t Gateway Pundit)

The transcript of the interview:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It’s just that it will bankrupt them.”

That was audio from an interview he gave to the San Francisco Chronicle. Funny thing is, the story written based off that interview did not include ANYTHING about the bankrupting of the coal industry.

Shocker!

And going along for the ride is the United Mine Workers Of America who say that “Barack Obama is on record supporting the development of clean coal technology in the United States.”

This coal industry union is fully behind Barack:

We got all of our local presidents to sign letters to the nearly 6,000 pensioners in Pennsylvania in support of Barack Obama. We are leafleting at every mine and non-mine organized unit and our members are taking part in phone banks and labor walks regularly….

But what will this unions response be to Barack’s bankruptcy plan for the coal industry? Will they still bow at the alter of the one?

How could they not know what was in store for their industry? He is on record as saying he wants to change the behavior of the American people by raising the cost of fuel and power prices:

“It’s not going to be painless” he says. Your damn right it’s not. Bankrupting an industry and raising the costs for everyday items needed by the people of this country is going to hurt quite a bit.

In the end it’s not going to be just the coal industry he bankrupts…it will be the country as a whole.

UPDATE

Transcript:

The problem is not technical, uh, and the problem is not mastery of the legislative intricacies of Washington. The problem is, uh, can you get the American people to say, “This is really important,” and force their representatives to do the right thing? That requires mobilizing a citizenry. That requires them understanding what is at stake. Uh, and climate change is a great example.

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.

They — you — you can already see what the arguments will be during the general election. People will say, “Ah, Obama and Al Gore, these folks, they’re going to destroy the economy, this is going to cost us eight trillion dollars,” or whatever their number is. Um, if you can’t persuade the American people that yes, there is going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term, because of combinations of more efficient energy usage, changing lightbulbs and more efficient appliance, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, the economy would benefit.

If we can’t make that argument persuasively enough, you — you, uh, can be Lyndon Johnson, you can be the master of Washington. You’re not going to get that done.

As if our economy needs an increase of energy costs right now. The rise of oil caused havoc with our economy earlier this year. What he is talking about will shred this economy and make the 70’s look like a golden age.

UPDATE

Good time to bring this up again?

also:

That ever morphing Obama definition of “wealthy”… $120K now, per Bill Richardson

Either the internal communications in the Obama camp are suffering some serious breakdowns, or no one seems to be able to nail down how low that Obama threshold of “wealthy” will go before Tuesday! Sure wish I could have heard the entire interview with Oklahoma’s Steffen Tubbs.

H/T to Lucianne for the Pittsburg Live news blip

Finally:

Don’t Count McCain Out!

He knows how to come from behind and WIN!

UPDATE: TIPP POLL SHOWS 2 POINT RACE!!!

It’s been a year since John McCain visited Mike’s America and yours truly had the opportunity to spend some quality face time with the eventual GOP nominee. I used that time to ask him some tough questions conservatives had about him and am pleased to report that unlike what happened to Joe the Plumber after asking Obama a tough question, I was not investigated by state agencies nor was I smeared in the press.

This meeting was by no means the happiest of occasions. McCain’s campaign had suffered layoffs, lack of funding and been declared all but dead by the “news” media. But McCain didn’t accept defeatism from the pundits and bravely declared he was going to win the New Hampshire primary and that would be the springboard to winning the South Carolina primary and the nomination. At the end of our time together I wished Senator McCain “good luck” thinking that his plan was forlorn of hope.

Two months later John McCain had turned forlorn hopes into reality and he can do it again on Tuesday, November 4th.

Granted, the hill is much higher to climb this time around. States that were key to President Bush’s victory in 2004 seem to be in danger of slipping away. But McCain is also gambling on taking Pennsylvania, with it’s 21 electoral votes, to help him close the gap.

A number of analysts suggest that McCain can win if a “perfect storm” shifts independent and undecided voters his way in the closing hours of this campaign. In many polls, Obama still can’t break much above 50% and yet his closing strategy seems to be to coast on that slim lead.

That could be his mistake as this article points out:

Five things that keep Democrats up at night
By Tim Harper
Toronto Star
Nov. 2, 2008

• Auntie Zeituni: The Obama campaign said yesterday it would return $260 in campaign donations from Zeituni Onyango, his Kenyan-born aunt who is living illegally in this country.

Obama said he had no idea the woman he refers affectionately to as “Auntie Zeituni” in his memoir had been ordered out of the country four years ago by an immigration judge but said he believed all U.S. laws should be followed.

She lives in public housing in Boston and attended Obama’s swearing-in as a U.S. senator in 2004 and, according to Obama, last talked to him about two years ago.

• Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida (click for latest polls): All are still in the Obama column, but all are tightening in the final days.

“It’s time for a reality check,” Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Ed Rendell said Friday. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

His state looks solidly behind Obama, but what’s with this NBC/Mason Dixon poll suddenly showing his lead at only four points, within the margin of error?

RealClearPolitics, which collects and averages major polls, shows McCain has whittled six points off Obama’s once 14-point lead in Pennsylvania in three weeks.

• Investor’s Business Daily poll: It has become the Republican equivalent of comfort food, the most accurate poll in 2004 has consistently put the national race closer than most other polls do.

Yesterday, it had Obama up only 4.5 points nationally, but with 8.7 per cent still saying they were unsure. And while Democrats are worrying, what about this nugget in yesterday’s Hotline Diageo tracking poll putting McCain and Obama tied among independent voters? A week ago, Obama led by five points.

• Where is the youth vote? There is evidence that in the midst of record early voting, the one missing component is the youth vote, those who have turned out in the tens of thousands to cheer Obama at rallies.

In Florida, where 3.4 million people have already voted, an Orlando Sentinel study found only 15 per cent of them were under age 35.

• The Bradley Effect: This phenomenon – named after black candidate Tom Bradley, who unexpectedly lost to the 1982 California gubernatorial election to the white Republican challenger, George Deukmejian, may be myth or at least outdated.

There is no reputable polling data available in 2008 that indicates voters are telling pollsters they will vote for Obama while actually planning to vote for McCain.

More often than not, Obama outperformed his polling numbers in the primaries.

But it would be naïve to discount race in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio, states where Hillary Clinton easily beat Obama in the primaries, and it is more likely that many people who tell pollsters they are undecided have really decided to vote for McCain.

That means there could be 6 per cent of Americans listed as “undecided” who are actually McCain backers hiding their intentions.

But an expected record black vote for Obama will overwhelm any latent racist effect.

Won’t it?

For those who need some extra encouragement, Obama’s running mate Joe Biden (the gift that keeps on giving) is always willing to lend a hand with his latest slip of the brain:

“I felt awful good about this time in the (John) Kerry campaign and I felt good in the(Al) Gore campaign and so, so, this, that old joke, you know, it ain’t over till it’s over,” –Joe Biden