Anti-Private Business Bureau

The below letter to the editor is by Robert "Bob" McDowell, Jr. He is a Professional Engineer and Geologist with over 50 years experience in creating drilling prospects, supervising drilling, well completion, production operation, and pipeline design for oil and gas including repair of problem wells. McDowell is a conservative and active in the Oklahoma Republican Assembly.

---

Bob McDowell

By Bob McDowell: While in the campaign for the presidency, President Obama was quoted, and heard on replay, as stating that he was going to put the coal mining industry out of business. His administration seems to never miss an opportunity to carry out that agenda. In a story in the daily paper dated July 8 the headline screamed "EPA targets 26 power plants". The story was rather lengthy and included a picture of the PSO generating plant at Oologah, one of those targeted.

The agenda of EPA to accomplish the abolition of coal fired generating plants is to mandate such strict, onerous, and unnecesary emission restrictions, on top of those already in place from previous mandates, that the owners would be forced to spend millions to comply and might simply shut the plant down instead.

If such was to come about, the increase in electric costs to we consumers, both residence and business, would be rather substantial. It seems that those now in charge of the EPA have an almost hysterical opposition to any 'fossil fuel' use for beneficial products for us. In addition, the mandates proposed would be placed in force so soon that the operators
would be forced to actually shut the plants down, according to AEP-PSO statements, for as long as two years, simply because it would be physically impossible to make the modifications in the time allowed by EPA.

An ancillary action to this is the push by some natural gas producers, especially Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma City, in their attempts to get more gas fired generators to raise the price of natural gas that they produce. If successful in this effort, we would also end up paying more for our heating gas in the winter.

A bare week later a story appeared that stated the whole Congressional delegation from Oklahoma had accused EPA of trying to kill the entire coal mining industry in the State. Many do not know that there is a viable coal mining operation in Oklahoma, although the product is not as 'clean' as is the low sulphur coal mined in Wyoming. In fact, information furnished to me, first hand, several years ago indicated that there had been a previous rule established that the such plants had to reduce their sulphur emissions by a certain percentage, the number of which no longer is in my memory.

This forced the GRDA, and perhaps others, to turn to a mix of Oklahoma coal, with its sulphur, in order to attain the reduction in emissions. In addition, this rule resulted in the loss of a market for one half of the fly-ash from the Choteau generating plant because of the sulphur in it and forcing GRDA into setting up a land-fill for that which was non sellable on a continuing basis. The fly-ash sets up like cement when wetted and can, and is, mixed with dirt then wetted to make a more firm base for the fill for street and road construction.

All of this obviously will have, and has had, the result of substantial job losses, with more to come in the future. It has been thought, with some confirmation, that the Obama administration agenda is to destroy the private sector economy and establish a Communist/Socialist dictatorship in the USA with him, and his supporters, as the surviving dictatorship. In fact, it has been reported that he has already established private armies, within the existing bureaucracy such as BATFE that are not constrained by the "Posse Comitatus" statute against using federal troops against the citizens of the USA and within the borders.

Perhaps that is why he has been so intent on using the National Guard so much on over seas operations, so that they will be unavailable here to protect the citizens and state governments. This is a scary thought!

---

Tags: Bob McDowell, Oklahoma, Barack Obama, Administration, anti-business, EPA, power plants, energy production To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!