Bold Leadership! AK GOP Senator - Just Build Coal Plant, Ignore All Federal Laws, Regulations

[hatrack]

JUNEAU — A Fairbanks lawmaker is asking the governor to come up with a plan to ignore the federal government and build a large-scale coal power plant for the day oil prices spike. Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, is carrying Senate Concurrent Resolution 16 to ask the governor to investigate the feasibility and cost of building coal power plants on state land “without regard to federal permits or restrictions.”

“There’s going to come a time when a natural event, an economic event, a war, and we’re going to wake up and read headlines, like we did on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and realize the world had changed. And when that happens, we’re going to have another spike in electricity and energy costs that will stagger us,” Kelly told the Senate Finance Committee this week.

He said the state should consider building an alternative, backup power source for that day, and coal, he said, is the cheapest and most readily available fuel source available. It’s also one of the most restricted because of its pollution. “The resolution was in response to the fact that the federal government has decided that they don’t like coal, and we’ve got lots of it and we’ve got energy problems,” he said. “In Alaska, we’re 70 percent oil and gas, about 20 percent hydro and 10 percent coal, and we also have the resources that are the envy of the world with regards to coal.”

Kelly said ideally, the state would build a large power plant at the mouth of a coal mine on state land and transmission cables to communities, including rural ones. The plant might not be turned on right away, he said, but would be ready to replace oil or gas if an international crisis causes them to spike.

EDIT

Ed. - brilliant grasp of the business model for expensive generating stations! This guy has on his


http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/fairbanks-senator-wants-to-pursue-coal-plant-without-regard-to/article_53126cf0-b25a-11e3-978f-0017a43b2370.html

[Bluenorthwest]

1. It might not be turned on? It's the coal plant to nowhere!

nt

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. Does this legislator, or any of his family, own or invest in heavy construciton?

The stupid aura that glows around many conservatives is often a mask on blatant, individualistic, personal wealth creation.

[pscot]

3. Dude is on to something...

geologists estimate that up to 1.5 trillion tons of coal may be located under the waters of (Cook) Inlet. Additional coal is to be found on the west side of the Inlet, and still more on the Kenai Peninsula. Several mines have been proposed for these latter sites, though none has yet applied for a permit.

Smaller deposits are located in central Alaska and Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

Currently the Usibelli mine, located in the mountains of the Alaska Range roughly 300 miles north of Anchorage, is the state’s only active coalmine; it exports about a million tons a year. The coal moves by rail to the Port of Seward (roughly a hundred miles east of Cook Inlet and south of Anchorage), the majority of it bound for South Korea. But this is a proverbial drop in the bucket in terms of the state’s export potential.

Altogether, Alaska claims some 5.1 trillion tons of coal resources—five times the coal resources of China. In contrast, Alaska’s coal reserves currently amount to less than 3 billion tons, or just nine month’s worth of China’s current total consumption.

http://www.postcarbon.org/article/1716338-alaska-s-coal-flashpoint-for-coming-climate

Huge coal deposits under the North Slope. Once the ice disappears it will be a short haul from there to China. WooHoo!