National Coal Coping with NIMBYism, Accompanied by A Heavy Dose of Extremist Environmental Obstructionism.

A few observations and questions about the wailing, and rending of garments over the proposed Brushy Pond Coal Mine, if I may.

Not an inconsequential amount of pollution is caused by marine engines, and marinas. There are more than 1,000,000 households in Alabama that have some type of watercraft. I may be proved wrong, but as this increasing, collective, en masse pollution continues, unceasingly, as it has for decades, where is the misplaced self-righteous indignation, where are the petitions to halt boating in our precious lake? I do hope the residents near Brushy Pond have not found their new vigor for environmental obstructionism only when it is in their self-interest. Surely they will soon endorse a moratorium on marine engines and the marinas, for the good of the environment, to save and protect the water quality. Surely they are not participating in selective environmentalism. Pollution is pollution, no matter the scope or size. Just as there being no difference between a white lie, and black one; they're both lies.

The Problem of Marine Engine Pollution;

Environmental Effects of Marinas and Boating Activities;

High toxicity in the water;

Among the greatest contributors of hydrocarbons (HC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) pollution in the United States.

Secondly, where was the three-ring circus, that now belligerently tries to suck the pragmatism, logic, and objectivism from the room, when developers, realtors, speculators, were building, adding-on to, or demolishing to make way for, the nice homes on the lake? Not to mention the infrastructure to get there? Was the community rife with anxiety for the possibility a critical habitat for endangered or threatened plant and animals may have been harmed in the creation of McMansions that dot the lake? Was the construction site continually monitored for environmental prohibitions? Did you plant replacement trees for the ones you destroyed?

Moreover, when you purchased your lot, or existing home, adjacent to, or on top of another surface or mineral owner, did they accuse you of lowering the value of their coal reserves? Did they exclaim that building, and living in a home on top of their minerals, or next door to, could severely inhibit their future plans to exercise their private property rights and mine their natural resources? Did the owners of the surface and mineral rights author letters to the newspapers blanketed with distortions, fear-mongering, and illogical declarations?

If you answered no to all the questions in the prior paragraph, I beseech you to write, or call, your neighbor, or whomever may own the mineral rights beneath your land, and thank them; thank them for respecting your private property rights.

A 2003 Piece Concerning NIMBYism; Elements Germane To All Natural Resource Producers

A Great Analysis of Oregon's Radical Environmental Obstructionists Problem

Radical Environmental Obstructionism

Blount County Audience Voices Strong Reservations Over Proposed Return of Coal Mining

Browse through the full story here.

A Canadian company called MCoal has applied to the Alabama Surface Mining Commission for an initial permit that covers 564 acres.

The company has applied to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for a wider permit covering 3,522 acres and company officials say that future phases of their mining of the Rosa Coal seam could include underground mining.

While the current permit will not allow blasting and includes only augur mining, residents expect future phases will.

MCoal plans to hire 25 to 30 local employees and hopes to recover a total of 5 million tons over the next several years. The Rosa Coal seam is known to produce metallurgical coal, which is particularly valuable because it can be cooked into coke which is used to make steel.

The rising price of coal has sparked a renewed interest in mining deposits that had not been considered economically feasible.

Kennedy Doesn't Play By The Rules - The Boston Globe

Kennedy doesn't play by the rules - The Boston Globe

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The stunning hypocrisy of liberal environmentalists is never more encapsulated than Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy pulling strings to kill a wind farm in New England. The NIMBY mentality is absurd.

More commentary on the issue: Let's Unite Behind an Alternative Energy Project

But, it turns out, Kennedy's antipathy to furtive rules changes and backroom power plays stops at the water's edge -- specifically, the waters of Nantucket Sound, which separates Cape Cod (where the Kennedy family has an oceanfront compound in Hyannis Port) from the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. A shoal in the center of Nantucket Sound is where Cape Wind Associates hopes to build the nation's first offshore wind farm -- an array of 130 wind turbines capable of generating enough electricity to meet 75 percent of the Cape and Islands' energy needs, without burning any oil or emitting any pollution. The turbines would be miles from any coastal property, barely visible on the horizon. In fact, Cape Wind says they would be farther away from the nearest home than any other electricity generation project in Massachusetts.

But like a lot of well-to-do Cape and Islands landowners and sailing enthusiasts, Kennedy doesn't want to share his Atlantic playground with an energy facility, no matter how clean, green, and nearly unseen. Last month he secretly arranged for a poison-pill amendment, never debated in either house of Congress, to be slipped into an unrelated Coast Guard bill. It would give the governor of Massachusetts, who just happens to be a wind farm opponent, unilateral authority to veto the Cape Wind project.


NIMBY

Cap and Trade

Edward Kennedy

Hypocrisy

Hot Air On Wind Energy, by Factcheck.org

An excellent article about the delusional daydreaming of the environmentalists, and their hypocritical NIMBY prowess. Enjoy!

Interior Secretary Salazar said that the amount of "developable" wind power off the East Coast could produce more energy than all the coal-fired electric plants in the U.S., and that wind’s potential to replace most of our coal power "is a very real possibility." We find his claims to be wildly optimistic, to say the least.