Animal Farm: [from Wikipedia]
Characters and their possible real life counterparts

* 2.1 Pigs
* 2.2 Humans
* 2.3 Horses
* 2.4 Other animals

***Pigs, Earl***I choose pigs***

The $1B influx is all the politicians are looking at – whether or not the facililty is it’s absolute safest is secondary. I’m in favor of it being built as well to prepare for the future needs, but with the impending change in the facility requirements, I worry a bit that Santee Cooper is rushing the project a bit to get it in under the wire.

Like most projects, the politicians are rushing it along without paying too much attention to the environmental deets, so the public has to do it for them.

The idea that they can responsibly manage a coal plant is like saying an alcoholic can manage a whiskey factory.

Lonnie Carter for Governor. Have a f*cking conscience.

How many times have I told you, it depends on WHOSE personal sleaze!

As to the issue of construction materials … I’m sure they’re talking about a lot of the hard, durable materials that would require a considerable amount of hauling and time to produce. With the price increases we’ve seen on some materials over the last few years, even if you had to move the stuff around locally, even an extra 5-10% for hauling and storage costs would be far less than the price inflation we’ve been seeing, especially with items related to steel or that requires a lot of oil content or fuel to manufacture.

In this industry, cost are going up 10-20% annually and have been for the last five or six years. The trade quotas on steel imports (the high cost of protectionism) hit the industry about the same time as the beginning of the oil price rises, but the steel price increases have finally slowed down to where the biggest factor in cost increases is related to transport.

For those of you who don’t work in the private sector and know nothing about construction… steel’s uses in construction includes rebar for concrete structures, structural uses, fencing, electrical conduit, guardrail, piping (even concrete pipe), roofing and some wall components.

The bottom line is that such a move wouldn’t cost them too much if the plant is turned down, but it won’t make them much money either. It would, if we continue seeing the cost increases we’ve been seeing in this industry, give them a degree of long-term cost savings by beating material price inflation, as well as operational delays in needing to wait for materials to be manufactured and delivered.

But back to the issue at hand, I think cost concerns are, at best, secondary considerations behind this move – and may not be considerations at all. Santee Cooper feels this plant is a done deal, and they’re trying to cut some costs in advance. But a lot of what we’ve seen suggests it may be tougher to get the permitting than they realize.

( … ain’t it nice to be talking about something real and tangible, instead of the personal sleaze?)

I agree about the Nuclear, at least in principle, and Santee Cooper has an application on file to have a Nuke plant online by 2016, but the biggest danger of the Nuclear plant (other than the obvious waste issues and core meltdown worries) is that it’s completely dependent on a consistent water supply and it looks like our legislators are going to drop the ball on the water bill this year. Fortunately we haven’t had the problems that our neighbors in GA have had with the water, but if it can happen to them it can happen to us.