Friday, April 24, 2015

My reaction to Gov. Tomblin on coal not quite what he would want

The governor of West Virginia:

These proposals appear to realize some of our worst fears....based on our initial review of these rules, not a single West Virginia power plant will be in compliance if the rules were in effect today despite the billions of dollars companies have already spent to modernize their facilities.

When I read that I think what the heck is the problem with West Virginia in general and its governor in particular - sounds like they need modernizing, big time.

There's also a little question of truthfulness - 4.1% of their power comes from hydro and wind, I don't think they're on the chopping block. Mainly though, what kind of planning puts 95% of your power in one heavily polluting source? Yes it's a coal state, but it's also a people state, and they're basically admitting that they're putting coal interests ahead of their own population. The natural gas economic revolution started nearly a decade ago, very close to this area, so it's their own fault they haven't diversified.

Turns out they were planning natural gas expansion anyway, so hopefully the Obama regs will be a big push forward to reduce emissions any way they can.