Trade unions go for the bird in hand
Two Democratic constituencies are bumping bellies over whether Michigan should kill sure-thing jobs in the old energy industry on the promise that doing so may create green energy jobs.
The Building and Construction Trades Council, a group of unions, has joined with business groups and utility companies to urge the Granholm administration to lift its blockade of two major power plant projects proposed by Consumers Energy and Wolverine Power.
Construction of the coal-fired power plants would create thousands of jobs. But environmentalists have prevailed on Gov. Jennifer Granholm to halt the projects on the premise that Michigan doesn't need the increased electricity production.
The governor's rejection of the plants is part of her strategy to revive Michigan with green jobs. But she can't point to actual jobs anytime soon.
The power plants, meanwhile, will deliver jobs right away. The construction unions are smart enough to see that real jobs today are a better bet than possible jobs tomorrow.
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energy-power plants
First, the effluent from coal fired plants can be captured and cleaned to hospital air standards, the technology and equiptment is on the shelf right now.
Second, excess power is highly marketable, easy to feed into the grid, and provides a reserve for the event of natural disasters.
Third, The economic condition that Michigan is in does not permit elitism or indulsion of more fantasy from Granholm.
So lets move forward to stem the economic disaster that we are imersed in and not stagnate any further.
NOTE: Nuclear power plants are a military target that can't be fixed if damaged by attack. Remember Chernoble? Three mile Island was almost the same but the risk was smaller because it was dealt with right away. Those were peacetime incidents. A military target is too risky no matter what the other considerations or bennefits suggest.
Bird in Hand
Let's keep destroying the planet forever so we can have a few jobs now.
I'm sure you all think dipping into your 401K account to buy a TV is a good idea too.
Trade unions go for bird in hand
Well, the trade unions are right on this subject. Get those power plants built now to keep the trade unions working. Governor, those jobs you want to create are far off, and will be fewer than you think, after build out. At rediculously higher costs to the public. You see, the public doesn't understand that power is sold on the grid, at a minumunm federal MISO rate. Regardless of HOW its produced. Let's not forget, we could also be helping to layoff thousands of U.S. coal miners in Virginia too. Thus helping the federal recovery stagnate, and create more UNEMPLOYMENT, dummies.
Bird in Hand...
So we build two unnecessary(?), multi-million dollar, coal burning power plants just to create jobs. On one hand that makes sense because we need to put people back to work. On the other hand I wonder who will end up paying for these plants once they've been built and those construction jobs have moved on. Will the consumers be paying higher energy bills to maintain possibly underutilized plants? I'm just asking because it seems that this we probably don't know the whole story here.
Bird in Hand - Part 2
Pursuant to my post below, GE also happens to be the parent company for all the NBC television networks.
NBC strongly endorsed the Obama campaign and now stands to make trillions of dollars from "Cap 'n Trade", "Stimulus Package" and other "green" legislation...
The CEO of GE (Jeffrey Immelt) also sits on Obama's energy committee. Does anyone else smell a rat?
Bird in Hand
The idea of "Green Jobs" has been greatly exaggerated and misused by politicians and environmentalists to make their agendas more palatable to the general public.
In reality these "green jobs" actually occur in offshore locations as "obsolete" technologies are forced out by "green" legislative mandates.
For instance, traditional light bulb manufacturing jobs in OH, KY and VA were cut due to "green" legislation in favor of compact flourescent bulbs, to be manufactured in China.
"GE May Close Last Household Incandescent-Bulb Plant"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqrvXvSaTYEE
This is what the term "green jobs" actually represents...
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