Should Washington support coal strip mining just because union members are doing the destruction of the environment?

Re.: Washington's recent support of strip mining. CLICKE HERE for details.

Shouldn't Washington initiate a strong conservation program? As demonstrated by the Rocky Mountain Institute, US energy needs could be cut by 30% in doing so. More details in the reference quoted above.

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Permalink Reply by Steve at work on June 17, 2009 at 1:19pm: Dr. Kugler;
You are correct that it is a bad idea to allow strip mining regardless of who does it. However if you have been following our presidents actions it is easy to determine that he is only about paying off all the people that got him elected and who he believes will continue to elect him. Billions to the UAW to bail out their pension fund before allowing the auto makers to go into bankrupcy. Billions more to insure that union construction workers all have jobs. Etc etc. etc. we are spending billions to pay off his political debts. What difference does a few thousand square miles of desolation in the west matter to him?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dr. Hans J. Kugler, PhD on June 17, 2009 at 2:32pm: Sadly enough, I may have to agree with you.
His administration's letter to coal lobbyist Rep. Rick Rahall (D-W.VA) was a true shock to my system.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steve at work on June 19, 2009 at 7:34am: Dr. Kugler;
I origionally had a lot of hope for the new administration. They were saying a lot of the right things and were proposing a lot of necessary changes. The motto was "change". But after doing my homework on what they were actually doing and how it was working instead of on the rhetoric I have come to the inescapeable conclusion that there has been no change in the way the politics of the country is conducted. Great ideas on alternative energy/wind generation but the first and only money given in my state was to a company ran by the son of a former governer and U S Senator Whose sister is the Secretary of state and whose brother is a Representative in congress. Like to guess what party they are all from and who they supported in the last presidential election? If anyone else asks about getting soime money for wind energy it is not available and no one knows how to access it. So much for transparency and so much for getting fooled into getting my hopes up again that something might actually change.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dr. Hans J. Kugler, PhD on June 19, 2009 at 10:47am: Steve:
Sadly enough, more and more I feel the same.
Look at the Detroit car industry: What we really need are fully electric or 150 mpg plug-in hybrids. On the other hand, why force somebody to buy a smaller car? GM's Volt has been judged a failure; "built to fail," as experts told us long ago. The Volt could easily be saved and turned into a success, but the unions don't give a s--- what they produce (as long there is an incentive - - the "trade in large engine cars" - - to create a demand for people buying new cars), and the oil moguls don't want it because such a great mileage improvement would reduce gasoline needs.
Did you see MY BLOG about getting off foreign oil?
Regards:
Hans; ▶ Reply to This