Was the Grid a Campaign Promise or a Lie?

Yesterday, I raved about the Newsweek article titled “Hit the Road Barack.” In this article, Niall Ferguson points out that Obama broke a promise to build a modern electrical grid. Concurrently, I received the statement shown below from my electricity supplier. Note the amount of electricity being generated by various forms of fuel. Granted this distribution is from Illinois, but I believe it will be similar for all fifty states. In Illinois we burn coal to supply 45.6 % of our electricity. Our second largest fuel is Uranium 238 (Nuclear Power). Illinois has a heavy concentration of nuclear power, and has been a leader in this area since nuclear power came on the scene. There is a lake between Channahon and Morris, Illinois where spent fuel glows with an eerie blue light underwater.

So what did our president decide to do? He made good on a campaign promise to break the back of the coal industry in AMERICA. President Obama professes his home town is Chicago, Illinois, yet he threw the Illinois coal mining industry under the bus. There is enough coal under Illinois to provide the total energy demand of the USA for a hundred years. How large will the hole be that remains after removing a hundred years worth of coal? Certainly it will be large enough to throw the Chicago and State of Illinois Democrat machine in forever.

Think about this, where will you get half of your electricity when coal is gone? Will it be from nuclear? Not a chance. It takes ten years and a boat load of money to build a modern nuclear power plant. Will it be wind power? Look at the numbers below and tell me how many windmills can generate that much electricity. Illinois already sports way too many ugly windmills and I cannot imagine what the countryside will look like if we got half of our power from wind.

Will it be solar? Not in the Chicago area, our cloud cover from Lake Michigan makes the Chicago area one of the least effective solar power areas in the world.

Will it be from hydro-power? Not likely, since we don’t have waterfalls or raging rivers in our state.

Most likely, we will get it by converting coal plants to natural gas. The cost of converting that many coal-burning plants will be expensive. Oh yes, we will continue to burn coal, but it will be expensive. Face it, our electrical bills will rise faster than the deficit.  So, what has all this have to do with the new grid?

Fuel Distribution

When I first heard about a new electrical grid, something very robust and flexible came to mind. The grid would have to accommodate attacks from foreign powers without shutting down the entire country; the grid would work like the internet. The idea for a new grid comes up each time we have a blackout of major proportions.

After reading a bit about the new national grid I have learned that the need is not driven by national security at all. It is President Obama’s Green Energy Policy driving the need. When the USA finally achieves the goal of replacing hydrocarbon fuels with sustainable green energy like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro a very flexible grid is needed to accommodate energy feeds from all these sources. On a windy day, when every windmill is running at peak, the new grid will feed the electricity all over the country. In the daytime, the solar panels will kick in, and feed the need. At night, when there is no solar, and very little wind, the grid would allow feeds from generating plants.

Can you imagine how many windmills and solar panels it will take to feed our electrical appetites?  I see every house in America roofed in solar panels, with the siding also generating electricity. Our lawns will be silver with solar panels. Each house will have a huge battery in  the basement to store excess energy for power on cloudy, windless days. We will need a degree in electrical management to run our in-home electrical needs like turning on light bulbs. What we don’t use will feed into the new flexible energy grid.  I almost forgot, windmills will top the same solar clad home.

I’ve said enough to show that the green energy thing is a giant wet dream being fed to the Sheeple of America for making the Green Energy lobby in Washington very happy. When every public building and house in America sports a windmill or two the new national power grid might become a reality. The real reason for the green energy policy is to pave the way for the Cap and Trade business of paying fines for exceeding CO2 emissions. The fines will go into an International Carbon Bank led by insider bureaucrats for distribution to countries who do not generate CO2. Of course the bureaucrats will feed their pockets with the free flow of carbon money coming in.

Who ever fed President Obama these ideas has used mind altering substances, and is having grandiose Dreams From Obama’s Father. Perhaps in one-hundred years the green energy thing will become a workable reality, but now it is a huge lie being forced on us as an excuse to steal  our money.

Green Energy for the White House