Chuck, You're dead on! Next come the stories by the administration media featuring the 50 yr. old on oxygen who has had their quality of life taken away by the evil power companies. They won't mention that the individual smoked 4 packs a day. No sense cluttering up a good spin.

You 2 are fear-mongers. We are talking about scrubbers that remove fine particle emissions. The same scrubbers are required on most semi-trucks. This is nothing new and was proposed by Bush. You look for anything to complain about, but you've got nothing.

Donald Ramsey

You are sooo right on. The smokers in this world are the only polluters on the planet. I am sure that the power plants are all putting out nothing but clean air and would never cause anyone to get sick.

Watch "Gasland" and wake up to the facts of life and those facts are that we are being poisoned every single day. The government has been bought off and none more so than the last administration. Oh this one is not much better but at least know the truth, that all parties are being paid off.

Look out another smoker is about to exhale, quick run out in the street and inhale all that clean air, LOL!!!!!

I saw Gasland and it was quite disturbing. For touting how clean natural gas is, the way they obtain is not.

It would be good to have a fair judge rule on this.

You do realize that this was Bush's proposal, right???

ps. Obama is working for the people (you know the one's who elected him), you are just a sore loser.

I agree with your first statement. In fact I didn't know they were similar to those on trucks. Thanks for the learning moment.

Your second statement is incorrect. My brother in Novato is solar and is paid by the power company for overproduction. In fact, since they have variable rates, higher in the day, he is paid back on the rate in effect at the time of overproduction. His bills are cheap. AND Cali has great tax and other credits. Way To GO! I live in Houston, NOTHING. No tax breaks (other than federal). No incentives, no nothing to encourage me AND I have the highest rates in the country. My bill on half the house as my brothers is 2 to 3 times his. Granted, we have had AC on since April....

st,

Many presidents have given the "idea" of cleaner coal and reduced pollution lip service but none have been able (or willing) to follow through. It will take a major political and national WILL to fight against the entrenched powers who prefer obscene profit over environmental health. I wish the current president and the voters better luck.

Wrong, the major player in our problems is greed. China's new power plants are cleaner than ours.

stspecialk is right. You can't demand $10 designer shirts and union wages to for those who have to make them AND an increasing bottom line for the owners. Something has to give. China's powerplants are up to date on environmental safety.

Here, the companies feel it's quite okay for us to breath and drink high levels of lead and other carcinogens just so they can remain highly profitable. That is perfectly fair.

Actually a sizable percentage of pollution in L.A. comes across the Pacific from China. Their plants are not as clean as you seem to think.

Smog alerts in LA since the 1960's and suddenly the problem is pollution from China crossing the Pacific to subvert our economic system. LOL!!!!!!!!!

Nice cj

Okay, I will agree to get rid of the EPA, if YOU, PI&U, and those who think (?) like you will agree to filter all the pollution that industry dumps in our environment through YOUR lungs, liver, etc.

It won't be cleaner for my family and me, but at least shortsighted people like you won't be around to complain about the EPA either.

I remember thinking to myself while I was watching the lead up to the Olympics in Shanghai, "That is so cool! In China it snows during the Summer time!!! They even wear ski masks when they ride bikes!!!"

Then the man on the TV said that it was smog and said that they had to shut down a bunch of factories a month in advance to get the air clean enough for visitors and athletes to come. Then it wasn't so cool anymore.

Maybe, their new plants are cleaner but they have plenty of older ones that are killing our planet. That people here would put China ahead of America when it comes to the environment clearly have an agenda. Good luck with that. I am sure it plays well in Hong Kong.

Donald prefers air he can chew to enjoy, thank you very much!

So, Donald, do you have any data to back up your claims? I'd like to read them.

2.8 billion a year to impliment? That's about 10% or less of dirty energy profits in a single quarter. Donald, I remember when the air in Gary Indiana was so polluted you could taste it. Is that what you want?

Of course the industry can do it. They just don't want to do anything good for the air quality if they are going to lose a single penny of thier profits. Why are you in favor of billowing pollutants into the air?

Newsflash. The poor can't afford utilities now.

I love the logic of anyone who enjoys pollution to save a buck. Makes no sense. We have people who are so fully engrained in P&L statements and wonton greed that they actually enjoy the concept of getting away with unethical practices. Pollution costs us more in the long run, than it saves us as the end-user. The concept of living with any form of pollution never accounts for the hidden or actual costs. These malpractices, these short cuts taken for individual reward, or short term greed, cost countries billions. Mismanagement does the rest.

Donald Ramsey is so satisfied with the staus quo, his lack of logic is more akin to a 1920's industry baron. America needs to force the coal industry to put money into R&D to scrub coal cheaply. Because energy sector leaders refuse to spend the proper amount of money and time on safeguards and pollution controls, here again government must force their hand. Act irresponsibly, and expect big government to use a heavy hand. Do what is right, and government stays away. The 2008 presidential vote proves this to be true. That election was won, only because the last administration had allowed each sector to police itself, and we see and felt the consequences to this day.

So chastise the EPA, Obama, Pelosi and crew. But realize that you brought this upon yourselves, Don Ramsey, with your immoral practices in every business sector.

It's to the point that I wish I could believe anything anyone says. Clean air is costly. That's why China closed down all factories for the Olympics. Give me $30k and I will go solar. Instead we spent that much per car for the "cash for clunkers." WhooHoo... we saved the auto industry.....now the unions can survive to continue the stranglehold they have on us. I live in Houston and we have no incentives to go green at all. No tax breaks, no grants, no nothing. Yet BP can continue blowing things up here. But we can't let them fail, then who will pay for this mess.... Us.....well come to think of it, I guess we will anyhow... It's time for real change... all this Hope and change is killin' me. But who is out there? Dems suck. Reps suck as much (never thought I would say that). Maybe we should find a nice group of Amish willing to convert for the good of the world....Come to think of it maybe I will convert....

There are approximately 140 million end electric users in the US. That's all of an average of $20 per year per meter or $1.70 per month.

A small increase in the monthly bill is worth having cleaner air.

You're right, Peter. Problem is, we're consumers instead of owners. Therefore, I think we should NATIONALIZE the energy industries. That way, we'd be paying ourselves more for every kilowatt hour. What do you think?

Save yourself the agony of starvation. Consider jumping in front of a bus right away!!!!!

mj-1451595

I wish I could vote for your post a million times because your post said it all. What good is cheap if it leads to dead? They are not telling us the truth and I believe that there ARE alternative energy out there that will do the same as oil and coal. YOUR post is full of common sense and I wish more people had it.

I couldn't agree with you more, mj! I posted some of the same observations myself before I read your post.

Actually, solar, wind and power storage technologies are improving by leaps and bounds. Clean coal is a lie. Clean coal just moves the pollution from one waste stream to another. Remember the big dam full of scrubber waste that collapsed and polluted miles of land, rivers and groundwater? We'll have just as much pollution with scrubbers as without. It will just impact different areas. While natural gas burns marginally cleaner, as others have mentioned in previous posts, you don't want to live around where it is being taken from the ground If you want to stay healthy.

Solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tidal, advanced cellulose ethanol, algae oil, and yes, unfortunately, even modern nuclear must be phased in as rapidly as possible. Dirty coal and oil are rapidly destroying the ability of the land, air and waters of the planet to sustain healthy ecosystems, and their use should come to an end as soon as possible.

Clinton wanted coal plants to upgrade if they were going to expand. Bush told them to expand and forget about the upgrades. This is on the record and no amount of spin can change that.

Gee, we the power companies would have done what was right but we weren't sure what the regulations might be 20 years from now so we pocketed the money and did nothing.

Thanks for the insight into power company thought processes, brad.

Clean coal is a lie. Clean coal just moves the pollution from one waste stream to another

You hit the nail on the head cjcold!! So many people don't understand the "clean coal" myth.

Also, the power plant operators will sell the lie by only running the plant during winter months when the atmostphere is less able to produce and hold smog from the emissions. Well, the emissions are still being spewed, however, they just travel a little further until the atmospheric conditions are just right to brew some smog. It's all just a big lie. I wish I could afford to get off the power grid entirely. Hopefully someday!!

Yeah that's right, those damn republicans only want more money. The democrats want more money too but just because they they want to help the poor. They're such nice people. Tell me again why there are rich democrats. I mean why is it they don't just donate their millions to charity instead of taking $25k from my measly little salary.

Why is it that our life expectancy keeps going up? You have to die sometime of something.

Doesn't it cost more for a person to live longer? Aren't we just transferring the expense from medical to retirement (or maybe from the feds medical expense to our utility bill). That's kind of what happens when you make everyone dependent on the government for everything.

NoNBAFan, you are absolutely incorrect. The life expectancy, for the first time since the Great Depression is going down. That is right, your children and grandchildren will live shorter lives than you.

ronpal and I propose that any new regulations contain language assuring us that no low income family will have more than a 25 watt light bulb per household nor be prevented from freezing to death in the winter. After all, we can always bring back Bush/Cheney to create millions of new lower income families should the current ones die off.

If you are growing anything people may eat, I hope someone thinks to inspect your produce. With thinking (?) like that, you are going to kill someone.

You drive by an oil refinery and forging plant every day, and you think (?) they're only pumping out HOT AIR?!?!?! Well, I would guess you know something about hot air . . . you're carrying around a BIG reservoir of it between your ears.

B, I've read your post several times, but its import continues to elude me. Care to provide a translation or even a helpful gloss?