Who are you going to believe?
Yesterday, Ohio Republican John Beohner called for the Obama economic team to resign because of their dismal failure at rescuing the economy. From the Washington Times;
“Endless spending sprees, entangled tax structures and bureaucracy run amok – these are all outgrowths of a tired, bloated and broken Washington,” Rep. John A. Boehner said. “Now, more than ever, we need a fresh start that puts power back where it belongs: in the hands of the people.”
Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican who likely would become speaker of the House if the GOP wins control of the chamber, used the phrase “job-killing” 12 times to describe the Obama administration’s policies, but never mentioned former President George W. Bush in his morning speech to the City Club of Cleveland.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Bite-me was out cheerleading the economy. Quoted by the UPI;
“When the CBO, Congress’s top watchdog and an institution widely respected on both sides of the aisle, says that because of the Recovery Act as many as 3.3 million Americans are on the job today and the unemployment rate is as much as 1.8 percent lower, it’s impossible for even the most cynical, bent-on-rooting-for-failure critics to deny,” Biden said.
Existing home sales were at their lowest mark in 15 years. The Fed is divided on a course of action rendering the money-governing body useless. The ten-year bond fell below 2.5% yield and gold rebounded to new highs.
So who should we believe, Beohner or Biden?
Category: Economy
there is no comparison. Besides, Biden’s reasons that we should believe the economy is better because of the stimulus is “cuz they said so.” Really. But ignore what we see with our eyes… Whatever.
Hell, unemployment in Michigan is bumping up against 13%. I have a friend that keeps blaming it on the previous Gov. (John Engler R) He doesn’t like it when I point out That the current Gov (Jennifer Granholm D) has been in office for 12 YEARS!! He then of course, blames Bush. Our state economy has been in the crapper for 6 or more years but while the rest of the country was doing fine back then, Bush’s economic policies hurt ONLY Michigan (So sayeth our Gov.) In Michigan we’ll never forget the State of the State speech 5 years ago where she claimed “In 5 years you’re gonna be blown away!!!” I guess she wasn’t kidding…
Anon above was me…
I said yesterday we should buy up land in MI since it’s going for like 75 cents an acre. You guys have no where left to go but up. (I’m west of CLE– so believe me, I know what it’s like) it’s gotta stop.
I’m in one of those states that’s “doing well” with “only” 7 percent unemployment (NH). Unfortunately, a lot of the jobs aren’t here, and the ones that are simply aren’t paying worth a shit, unless you’re a government worker. Funny how those guys seem to be rolling in it lately.
OT, I’ve got an acquaintance who’s drunk the same Kool-aid, this is all either Engler’s, or Bush’s fault. It can’t be the fault of Governor Carbunkle, er Granholm. And, Montcalm County leads the west side of the state in unemployment, even though her brainchild, solar power and wind power were supposed to be the savior of Michigan’s economy.
I said back about a year ago, that Michigan was the model for what was going to happen to the country, in this case, we were just ahead of everyone else.
UpNorth
I work for *that utility* and we laugh about wind power whenever it is brought up. Of course the PRC and the government force us to raise prices to our rate payers and when they get the bill it has our name on it…not State of Michigan so who do people get ticked at? (rhetorical) The government forces us to make assumptions regarding wind and use different accounting to make it all “look” better on paper.
I was in Holland last week and saw billboards showing the support for windmills out in Lake Michigan too! 😉
Of course, the people who are renting the billboard won’t have to worry about their view of the lake. Or, they live in SE Michigan and could care less what those things will look like. I read that MSU did a study and the cost for one KWH of wind power is 4.5 times the cost of one KWH generated by a clean, coal-fired plant. This is what libs want to do to us. Drive Chevy Volts, while it costs us $400/month to charge up the car.
Meanwhile, the solar power folks in Greenville are laying off employees, the same people that Electrolux laid off, Federal-Mogul, etc.
UpNorth:
Do you have a link to the info for the wind power costs? My state has started developing wind farms, also, and I’d very much like to see anything you could send me.
Thanks.
Ask and you shall receive, Pinto. Here’s the link, it’s a study from 2008.
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/10/wind_power_advocates_balance_c.html
Thanks, UpNorth. One thing that the article didn’t mention that I have heard discussed here are electromagnetic fields around the turbines. It’s said the static fields can cause problems with wildlife; not sure if it can adversely effect humans.
Well, let’s just say it has a hell of an impact on the bird population, that’s for sure.
Sparky, Haha!
Actually, after Michigan told us we had to get 10% of our energy from renewable resources they then said it had to be so far from any great lakes, any rivers or any inland lakes. That left us with about 600 useable acres and that’s only if the landowners will lease it to us…and many won’t.
Pinto,
It’s not the EM fields that are the problem…it’s the spinning blades.
Can’t you guys engineer blades that gently push the bird to one side, wrap them in a Snuggie and then sing them to sleep?
Oh they pushed to one side and put to sleep alright….
Jonn, I’ll give you an idea of how clueless the average layperson is regarding wind power. A really decent sized wind turbine will generate about 750kW; not bad, at it’s peak. But then again, the power plant at which I work generates a NET output of 1,250,000 kW…or about 1700 wind turbines at peak output.
Problem is, the average availability of a wind turbine is somewhere on the order of 20 percent. So now we’re up to 8500 wind turbines, minimum, not including any which are down for maintenance, etc. Any idea how much land area is required for that many wind turbines? Boggles the mind, really. Yet the entire Seabrook plant covers less than a square mile, including auxilary, training, and warehouse buildings.
Then we have an issue which cuts down on their efficiency even further–not just Tweety guts, but BUGS that go splat on the turbines, which can actually reduce the efficiency by 20 percent or more. A lot of those larger turbines actually have to have washdown systems to spray the bugs off the blades.
Oh, I could go on and on. Bottom line, the cost per kWH of wind is something like 5-7 times that of nuclear, coal, or gas. Yeah, and when I’m paying 15 cents per kWh already, I REALLY like the idea of my electric bill going up by $600-800 per month.
Sparky,
We’re buying 1.7 MW turbines which of course assumes that they are running at peak efficiency. The other problem for us is ice build up in the winter, deicing systems are pretty pricey. One advantage we have is a large resevoir we built on a bluff over looking lake Michigan. We use the wind mills to pump water from the lake into the resevoir and then release it back into the lake later for the power. Right now we use the coal plants to fill it at night, off peak, and then use it as a peaker during the day.