I should have qualified the headline, look for those blackouts if we fail to act before then. The action needed is simple and easy. All we need to do is ignore the lunacy of the green crowd, and reverse the damage we have inflicted upon ourselves by being suckered into this global warming, (which has now turned to global climate change,) hoax. A little background for those of you who do not know what I am talking about.

Here is an article detailing the effects of the unreported Obama regulations are about to have on our electricity supply. 

Consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years.

The reason: Pending environmental regulations will make coal-fired generating plants, which produce about half the nation’s electricity, more expensive to operate. Many are expected to be shuttered.
American Electric Power, one of the country’s largest coal-burning electricity generators, said Thursday it will retire nearly a quarter of its coal-fueled generating capacity and that it will spend up to $8 billion to retrofit remaining units to meet regulations that start taking effect in 2014. Those moves will have an impact.

During the National Debate leading up to the Presidential Election of 2008, this topic came up a lot.  Politicians are very adept at making the impossible sound possible.  The whole green economy is one of those instances.  This is the reason for comparing the Obama Administration to a fairy.  A major difference between the Bamster and other lying politicians is that this particular lie, while being much more damaging than most, is also the centerpiece of his economic agenda.  Let that sink in for a moment , and then we’ll continue.

Why is it impossible?  I am glad you’ve asked that question.  What do we have to replace fossil fuels?  I would agree that we should be searching for more efficient and any source of energy possible.  I just  happen to believe that the free market does that better and quicker than a central government planner is able to.  The government subsidizes 49 times the cost per kilowatt hour for wind and solar energy produced than that of what we pay for coal produced electricity.  Simply because you and I do not pay these costs directly to the electric companies does not mean that we do not pay them.  Since the government does not produce its own wealth, it merely confiscates whatever it spends from us, we pay for it through taxation, or in the form of debt for future generations.  That cost of course is on top of what the electric producers will still decide to charge for their energy.  Even with this subsidy, wind, solar, and hydro-electric still produce about 2% of our electricity needs.  When the fossil fuel burning plants shut down, what will we do then?

When the price goes up, and the brain trust in the executive branch enact the price controls to quell the crowd of angry citizens mad about the increased percentage of their paycheck now needed to keep their refrigerators, light bulbs, air conditioning, heating, stereo systems, Internet, T.V.’s, Nintendo, etc. we will pay for our foolishness in another way.  Rolling blackouts, and artificial shortages will be the new norm.  For those of you too young to remember the gas lines of the 70’s, I will have a more recent example later on in the paragraph.  During the 70’s, when we allowed our President, Jimmy Carter, to project American weakness as our foreign policy agenda’s main plank, we were faced with a major shortage in the amount of gasoline oil companies were able to supply to local gas stations.  Jimmy Carter pushed something called the Windfall Profits Tax, which served as a form of price control.  The result of course, without getting too wonkish about the economics, was long lines and rationing for gasoline purchase across the country.  The lines in some cities were miles long.  A rationing system was established in several states whereby the last digit on a license plate dictated which days during the week drivers were permitted to purchase gasoline.  The more recent example, California in 2002.  This whole green energy fiasco was attempted in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia.  Governor Gray Davis promised Kalifornians that their energy prices would not increase, so he established price controls.  He ignored the economic heavy weights at the Hoover Institution and pretended instead that the law of supply and demand did not exist.  The result of course was an entire year in which the State Government of Kalifornia and the public utilities czars turned off the power to the entire state, in sections which rolled for hours at a time.  Every home in Kalifornia had about 3 hours per day without electricity.  Kalifornia was reduced to being part of the third world. 

Last week, President Obama gave a speech to auto workers who build Suv’s.  He told them of a brave new world where they would have great opportunities building hybrid vehicles which the government has had no luck at selling so far.  (Indeed, only 2184 have actually been sold to date.)  He told of his plan to sell these vehicles by punishing economically, anybody who would dare to consider the old and reliably efficient gasoline versions of this mode of transportation.  He told them tales of other business related to their work at the factory which had been saved and would continue to be saved by his unpopular auto industry bailout, including a restaurant which shut down literally days after his visit after 90 years of operation.  (The restaurant was called Chet’s for those of you who wish to fact check.)  less than a week after his speech, Obama sold the government’s stake in Chrysler for $560 Million.  This was far less than what we taxpayers paid for the auto company we did not wish to buy in the first place.  Where do I turn to to declare my capital loss on this year’s 1040?  For that matter, why did I not get the opportunity to vote on the sale in a proxy vote, as something this important would definitely be mandated under the corporate bylaws?  To put the sale of Chrysler in perspective we’ll try this.  $560 Million is roughly the amount new debt added by the Obama Administration in 3 hours time.  In the 3 hours it took President Obama to travel to Toledo to lie his tuchus off to the people who build the unappreciated Jeep Wranglers coming off of that line, Obama had blown through the proceeds of the stock no one gave him permission to buy or sell. 

Next question, when we are no longer able to purchase electricity, either due to the enormous prices, or due to the rolling blackouts, and grid shortages, how will we be able to drive those nifty and enormously expensive green cars anywhere?  A lot of us had been predicting these results at the top of our lungs prior to November of 2008.  All we got in response was the bleary eyed hopety change rhetoric.  Obama’s only miscalculation concerning his destruction of the American Economy so far is the speed with which his agenda has had its inevitable results.  I personally believe that the ravages of his agenda would not be experienced prior to his reelection bid in 2012.  What I find most troubling is America’s refusal to reference history.  These initiatives and policies are nothing new.  We saw this movie before, and it is playing out exactly the same way.  We are running Jimmy Carter’s playbook again, and we are reaping Jimmy Carter’s results again.  We simply can not afford 4 more years of Barack Obama.  We need to not only stop this lunacy, but to actually reverse the damage.

Crosposted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.