If a tree were to fall in the woods and bonk S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford on the head, would anybody hear it?
More importantly, would it knock any sense into a governor who seems more concerned with posturing for a 2012 presidential bid than making sound decisions about our state’s energy future?
These are the questions we’re asking ourselves today after Sanford decided to base the next decade of South Carolina energy policy on last quarter’s energy sales figures – which he says were down by 8%.
“What we’ve found is that in the actual numbers there was an 8% drop in the estimate of actual energy sold,” Sanford said. “And there will be further erosion.”
On this one statistic, Sanford has hung his opposition to a coal plant in the impoverished Pee Dee region of the state – one that earlier today received the support of former GOP Gov. Jim Edwards and Rep. Terry Alexander, the Democratic lawmaker who represents the district where the plant would be built, creating not only energy but also 9,300 construction and 200 full-time jobs.
Several members of the press grilled Sanford about his decision – notably the AP’s Jim Davenport and Yvonne Wenger of the Post and Courier – with Wenger basically asking Sanford if he was willing to make a bet of this magnitude on such limited information.
And what about La Socialista?
Their reporter, John Monk, wanted only to make sure that the governor pledged to lobby his political appointments to make sure they voted in accordance with his newly-expressed wishes.
Talk about hard-hitting journalism, right?
Of course, the good news is that Monk appeared to us to be the lone “non-skeptic” in the room.
“What if you’re wrong?” Wenger asked the governor point-blank about his projections.
Sanford responded by saying that he thought the numbers backed him up, before adding that he was “absolutely, affirmatively” for nuclear power – which the Greenies also oppose and which won’t be available for at least another decade.
Moments later, though, he added “ideally, we’d have a bunch of wind farms.”
Wait … wind farms? Don’t those gobble up huge amounts of land, governor?
Frankly, it was one of the more schizophrenic press conferences we’ve ever seen from Sanford, who on the one hand said that it was critical that South Carolina “not get left in the California lerch” of having to deal with rolling blackouts, but then removed the only option available to bridge the gap between our current power usage and projected demands.
Well, the only option short of saying that he didn’t think that the gap existed anymore.
Sanford had better be right, though, because he just asked the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) – which is holding a hearing on the coal plant tomorrow – to take that option completely off the table.
Look, folks … we’re Greenies. We have consistently supported funding for the state Conservation Bank and criticized lawmakers for the paltry amount they spend on preserving the open spaces that are so essential to our tourism economy and our state’s unique quality of life.
But we’re also for power.
And we don’t care if it comes from coal, nuclear, wind, water, algae, geothermal, biodiesel or the heat emanating from our founding editor’s vast, untapped sexual appeal – or from conservation, specifically in the form of tax credits for companies and families that use energy efficient equiptment and appliances, respectively.
In fact, if the state’s policymakers had done their jobs and created the proper pro-business conservation incentives years ago, we might not be in this predicament.
Of course according to Gov. Sanford, the best way to deal with that predicament is to say it no longer exists, all so that he can earn some transitory love from the kooky left.
As it turned out, that love didn’t even last through the duration of the Q&A section at Sanford’s press conference, as the Sierra Club’s representative at the event, John Hartz, chided the governor for not using the proper compact fluorescent light bulbs in his office.
By pluvlaw February 11, 2009 at 6:10 pm
No offense, but here in the Pee Dee, we would prefer not to get all that pollution for a “stop-gap” measure. And all that talk about jobs is ridiculous, the amount of actual jobs this plant will create, once construction is over, for local folks will be miniscule. There is a reason why private companies have gotten out of the coal-plant game. It ain’t worth it. I live here and have grown up here. The state could take $5 million worth of insulation and place them in houses around the Kingsburg area and save more energy than that plant would produce. We’re talking about an area where you can see the lights through the clapboard houses at night. It’s disingenuous for people to threaten these people with a false choice of health OR poverty. The people pushing this plant are selling these folks false hope.
Your coverage of Sanford’s decision leaves out an important factor: Sen. Leatherman. Leatherman has not publicly endorsed the thing. In fact, he has refused to comment up until now. But there is no way this plant is built in his backyard with him approving of it.
So by coming out against it, Sanford gets to:
-a) play to his image as a “true conservative” by being against a ridiculous use of funds (all that money for a plant that is already obsolete and won’t be able to recoup the money thanks to increased emmissions caps);
-b) upgrade his Mr. Kayak image with the environmentalists; and,
-c) piss on Leatherman.
A & B play into his posturing for the White House. C is just plain old gravy. Mmmmm…gravy.
By C February 11, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I think that the coal plant will eventually happen, but Santee Cooper needs to do everything it can to keep the environmental impact low. The only way to make them do that is to hit them politically and publicly. The more opposition to it in public, the better product we will eventually get.
By Natasha February 11, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Mama likes the gov-na tonight. Wind farms, I love it!! I want one!!!
By Philip Branton February 11, 2009 at 7:38 pm
SIC……….Come on..!?!
You know our state’s problem…!!
You kiss it every time you go to the PUMP !!!?
DO you or your wife have a CHOICE at the PUMP..??? …a CHOICE ?
You mean to tell us all here that YOU would rather BEND over for ROBERT Byrd than tax paying NUCLEAR Workers in Aiken..!?!
As far as WINDFARMS….do you know that there are HIGH wind advisories …TODAY ??? We have GE right here in OUR state but NOT ONE windfarm..??!?! DO we get any TAX Revenue from OUR Entire 100+ Mile Coastline from the Coastal ..WIND..!?!? How many engineers are we awarding scholarships to in OUR state universities that could be WORKING on OUR ENERGY Solution…???? How many..!?!?!
THE TIME IS NOW……Sic !
OUR parents didn’t have the technology to CLOSE down all LANDFILLS….WELL…Sic, You and I do !! SO what are you and I working so hard to leave OUR children WITH…!?!? MORE..landfills..???
Our parents did NOTHING after the OIL embargo to ensure a FREE and open Market for our ENERGY needs…..well….Sic …we CAN do something if we DEMAND a CHOICE…!!!
If you have no CHOICE….then we are SLAVES……!!!
By BIN News February 11, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Will,
The answer to South Carolina’s energy need is simple. Call yo gub’ner.
The Flux Capacitor. It’s so simple you can build one in your garage (if you had one), or you can buy one on EBay, cheap. Check EBay.
And, the Flux Capacitor runs on compost (available free from fits news and from voice for school scams).
Worms are extra. But worms are fish bait, like your future in this business.
Dr. Emmett Brown, Esq.
Inventor of the Flux Capacitor
BIN News Flux Capacitor Editor
Flair and Balanced
By Mab February 11, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Well, if you step outside of your holes tonight, you will see, feel, and hear wind. This is a no-brainer. Paint them to look like trees, so at non-windy times, they aren’t an eyesore. Commission artists to paint them with different cutesy themes.
Wind farms are it!
The greenies, the artsy types, the bimbos, the emos, the physicists, all God’s chillens can be happy.
By Bert February 11, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Today illustrates what we already knew: former Gov. Edwards is a stand-up guy, and current Gov. Sanford is a chump.
Why can’t our state have more principled politicians like Edwards?
By James the Foot Soldier February 11, 2009 at 11:13 pm
DR. Brown – bravo – yet another pithy post from BIN – that’s two in 6 months – keep it up!
Coal is problematic – for God’s sake – look at all that carbon dioxide it emits – when will the tree-huggers realize carbon dioxide is what trees NEED???? Guess they don’t teach that section of plant-ology any more.
Here’s a real solution: geo-thermal and solar. Last I checked, the sun shines 365 days a year and will for the next kajillion years.
Now, until that pipe dream is realized – build some coal and nucular plants and shut your pie-holes.
By Stinkbait February 11, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Bert, I’ll tell you why our state (or any other state) doesn’t have more principled politicians like Jim Edwards. Nobody but an egotistical idiot would subject themself & their family to the ordeal of running for public office. For example, try to imagine what personal life must’ve been like for McCain since 2004. Not that I’m expecting a Draft Stinkbait movement, but I wouldn’t do it at gunpoint.
By Earl Capps February 12, 2009 at 12:00 am
BIN – the Flux Capacitor – why didn’t I think of that?!?
By APK February 12, 2009 at 12:01 am
I don’t understand these damn college kids who claim to be envrionmental activists. They oppose oil, coal, trucks (we won’t even go into what any male opposed to trucks is) farting, cows, and whatever the fad of the week happens to be.
What are these kids learning? Seriously, I know they like to see pretty trees at their ultimate frisbee tournaments, but they are out of touch with reality.
Guys, oil is used to make tons of products, including plastic, yes the same plastic for your cute little frisbees for your pretend sport.
If this is what these kids are learning, we should really consider cutting all funding to public universities, because they aren’t getting the job done. According to the chief enviro from liberal land, 500 million Americans are losing their jobs every week. Why don’t these dirty little college kids tell the poor Americans who recently lost their job at a plant, on a rig, in a refinery or in a mine, that they were hurting the environment and they should find another job.
I think that would make for a nice little hippy ass kicking.
By Old Bike Dude February 12, 2009 at 8:14 am
APK, I like you. Hell you can come over to my house on Sunday and eat chicken. Clean coal tech is not new and it’s here and it’s available. Build the friggin plant.
I used to be a Sanford supporter but he has lost all credibility with me. Stay in Cola Sanfraud, us Beaufort boys don’t need you.
And you hippies aren’t qualified to hold Robert Byrds sack.
By lou February 12, 2009 at 10:02 am
This is what they always do… deny deny delay discount….
By Lou February 12, 2009 at 11:30 am
I wonder if Philip Branton knows that a Wind Farm does not generate that much energy. Dopes he also know that to create the windmills, there will have to be some pollution?
More people in this country have been injured from Wind Mills than have ever been injured from Nuclear Power Plants–and that’s a fact!
These green fascists simply want to control everything you do. It’s not about cleaning up the environment, its about control for them.
By John Hartz February 12, 2009 at 4:23 pm
On Friday, January 16, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program released four reports:
Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1 Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.2 Thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems.
Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.3 Aerosol properties and their impacts on climate.
Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 1.2 Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes.
These studies were released in the last days of the Bush Administration. They should be read by Governor Edwards and others who do not believe that global warming/climate change is real and caused by man.
John Hartz, Chair, Conservation Committee of the SC Chapter of the Sierra Club