Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le!!!

Peggy Noonan's column this week is why I used to love reading her;  she's writing about the Chilean mine rescue and she nails the heart and emotion of the story.

I was enthralled with the story, as were millions around the world who watched.  One by one those guys were pulled from what was very nearly their grave and every man had a story.  I talked with some people at work today who were of the same mind as I was;  the water cooler talk was, "Hey!  Did you watch those miners last night?!"  Everyone did.

Noonan gets this one right:

So many nations and leaders have grown gifted at talk. Or at least they talk a lot. News talk, politics talk, spin talk, selling talk: There are nations, and we at our worst are sometimes among them, whose biggest export seems to be chatter. But Chile this week moved the world not by talking but by doing, not by mouthing sympathy for the miners, but by saving them. The whole country—the engineers and technicians, the president, the government, the rescue workers, other miners, medics—set itself to doing something hard, specific, physical, demanding of commitment, precision and expertise. And they did it. Homer Hickman, the coal miner's son turned astronaut who was the subject of the 1999 film "October Sky," said Wednesday on MSNBC that it was "like a NASA mission." Organized, thought through, "staying on the time line, sequential thinking." "This is pretty marvelous," he said. "This is Chile's moon landing," said an NBC News reporter

 Speaking of Homer Hickam, during the course of this story I wondered what his thoughts were.  I wondered why Fox didn't have him doing some commentary.  Apparently, according to Hickam's Facebook page, he wondered the same thing:

I'll be on CNN around noon tomorrow to comment on the Chilean miner rescue. I guess Fox News is still mad at me after the Shep Smith interview on NASA and the President's plan. Shep liked it. I didn't and still don't.

So, Hickam narrated this story from CNN and from MSNBC.  I'm a longtime fan of Homer Hickam and his books.  The Coalwood Trilogy is simply classic.

At any rate, be sure to read Noonan's column this week; it's a keeper.  And it's a reminder to me of how sweet her writing can be!

And if you missed it, here is the rescue of number 33 and the celebration:

The Chilean Mine Rescue: UPDATED; LAST MAN OUT

The rescue of the Chilean miners is underway; what a dramatic moment.

Michelle Malkin has a great post about the involvement of American ingenuity that has helped expedite this day for the miners who were, at one time, looking to a Christmas rescue date.

This is all reminiscent of the 2002 Quecreek mine rescue of course, and in a small way it reminds me also of the Baby Jessica rescue years ago.

I can't begin to imagine the drama that must be present at the site in Chile; Fox News is doing wall to wall coverage and reports "a thousand journalists" are on scene and "they all want the story."   I sincerely hope these miners are protected on scene and are shielded from the overpowering media deluge; they've reportedly asked for a couple of weeks to privately adjust and reunite with their families, and I'd say the press should at least honor that.

These guys have stuck together for survivial since August 5 and I expect they may want to tell their story together.

A black screen has been set up now in front of the deck where the capsule will bring the men up from 2000 feet.  

There's a live feed here which is reporting that as each man arrives he will be greeted by three members of his family.  The extended family will have to wait.

Word now is that the capsule will first take a paramedic down; it's a 20 minute trip down and 20 back up, so the first miner, depending on conditions below and the assessment of the paramedic, may not come up for several hours yet.

Will update as news warrants.

Update 7:35 - The capsule is making a final test run now.  It has disappeared from site into the earth.

Update 7:56:  CNN also has a different angle video feed.  Family members are being taken to the rescue shaft.

Update 8:21:  The capsule has been sent down for another test.  Reports are that the atmosphere on scene has become celebratory as time nears for the first man to come up; video feeds show some wearing party hats in the colors of the Chilean flag.  Others are overwhelmed with emotion and shielding their faces.  The press is everywhere.  This is all likely to go on for some 36 hours or so as each man is brought up.

Update 9:05:  The first of two rescuers is heading down now.  When he has reached bottom, the capsule comes back up and the second rescuer goes down.

Update 5:00 a.m.:  I stayed awake as long as I could watching the rescue and saw the first two miners come up.  What a sight!  At this point, eight of thirty-three have now been rescued and things seem to be going smoothly; there's a long way to go still, but it's looking good! 

Update 6:15 a.m.:  The New York Times has continuing coverage of the rescue with several multimedia items.  I just watched miner no. 9 come up; I think this one was the oldest of the 33 and had some breathing issues; he was a bit weaker than the others, but is okay.  He hugged his wife: that scene brought a tear to my eye.  She looked so worried standing there, waiting for the capsule to come through, for them to open the door, for him to come out.  She looked so stricken.  But when he stepped out and she could finally hug him she beamed.  It was just beautiful.  He dropped to the ground and said a prayer; she stepped back and when he finished she reached down and helped him back up in an embrace.  I couldn't keep a dry eye.

Number 10 is on his way up.

Update 7:37:  The last miner is about to go into the tube.  What drama this has been; I've teared up several times at these reunions.   Every one of these guys has a story and family and loved ones and oh my goodness.  The little girl of Pedro Cortez, one of the last ones out...she had those huge balloons and she just looked so overwhelmed and emotional.  Each story is amazing.  The whole drama has been incredible and I know they're probably already casting a movie.  The spirit and courage of all of these people is just unfathomable to me and quite inspiring. 

God bless them all, and may they be in the continued thoughts and prayers of everyone in the days ahead.  They've still got a load road.

Amazing story.

And with that, the tube with the last miner is leaving the floor.  Godspeed.

More at Memeorandum.

Why Didn't Obama Shut Down the Coal Mines Until They Were Made "Absolutely Safe"?

Byron York at The Washington Examiner poses a question this morning:  "Who told Obama drilling is 'absolutely safe'"?

There was one particularly striking moment in President Obama's widely panned Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster. About midway through his talk, Obama acknowledged that he had approved new offshore drilling a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20. But Obama said he had done so only "under the assurance that it would be absolutely safe."

Absolutely safe? Even before the Gulf spill, few defenders of offshore drilling would go that far. And when the president announced his drilling plan, on March 31, he said it was "not a decision that I've made lightly" and that he and his advisers had "looked at [it] closely for more than a year." Surely he was told of the possible risks.

And so now we're dealing with this six month moratorium in Louisiana until Obama can make sure that drilling is "safe" and his commission can "do its work."

 

Tell me, why didn't he impose a six month moratorium on coal mining after the April 2010 explosion in a West Virginia mine that killed 29 miners? 

This is a rhetorical question.

The West Virginia Coal Miners

The West Virginia mine disaster story continues to unfold in the news today.  At last report rescue attempts for the missing miners had been suspended because of dangerous methane levels.  I can't imagine what those families and that community are going through. 

Homer Hickam has penned a lovely piece for the Wall Street Journal about mining.  Hickam is, of course, the author of the Coalwood trilogy which includes the famous Rocket Boys, which was made into the film October Sky.  The trilogy also includes Sky of Stone and The Coalwood Way, all of which I absolutely love and treasure.

In the WSJ, Hickam writes about his father's dream for Homer to become a mine engineer; Homer, of course, wanted to build rockets and work for NASA, something his father saw as a pipe dream.  But his father's words about miners are worth remembering as we pray for the miners in West Virginia:

While we were watching his miners, he said, "Sonny, coal is the lifeblood of this country. If coal fails, the country fails." Then, he shined his light on his men and said, "There's no men in the world like miners. They're good men, strong men. The best there is. I think no matter what you do with your life, no matter where you go or who you know, you will never know such good and strong men."

Read the whole thing.

Senator Robert Byrd Blasts Cap 'n Tax

Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-WVa) statement on Cap 'n Tax:

"I cannot support the House bill in its present form. I continue to believe that clean coal can be a 'green' energy. Those of us who understand coal's great potential in our quest for energy independence must continue to work diligently in shaping a climate bill that will ensure access to affordable energy for West Virginians. I remain bullish about the future of coal, and am so very proud of the miners who labor and toil in the coalfields of West Virginia."

Citizens in West Virginia are mobilizing against Cap and Trade with two July 18 events of protest. Mike Stuart, president of the West Virginia Conservative Foundation, says "Plain and simple, this is an energy tax and a tax on all Americans," he said. "This would be the most devastating bill in the history of our country. It's a bad bill, and it's gotta die." All three of West Virginia's Representatives voted against the bill.

In Kentucky, another coal state, State Rep. Jim Gooch said "If cap-and-trade legislation clears the U.S. Senate, Kentuckians will see a significant increase in the cost of electricity and a loss of jobs in the steel and aluminum industries." Gooch is concerned about the state's steel industry.

"Kentucky has 30 percent of the nation's stainless steel production, and between 30 and 40 percent of the aluminum production. Those plants will go overseas if we lose our cheap electricity," Gooch said. "We're not going to be able to take advantage of solar and wind energy in this state."

Reaction in agricultural states is equall concerned. This from Iowa:

David Miller, of the Iowa Farm Bureau, who also serves as chief science officer for AgraGate Climate Credits Corp., said the bill's carbon policy would substantially affect agriculture in rural America. "Everything we do is carbon-based," he said. "We have no noncarbon alternatives. Plants don't grow without carbon. Livestock don't exist without carbon."

Although agriculture isn't a named cap sector in the bill, Miller said the industry would be affected by indirect costs, including higher fertilizer costs, corn prices and taxes on livestock, resulting in $5 billion in increased costs to agriculture by 2020 and $13 billion to $14 billion by 2050. "If you raise electrical costs, rural America will pay for it, and rural America will pay for it at a higher rate than urban areas," he said.

The Heritage Foundation posted a new article yesterday debunking that whole "cost of one postage stamp a day" meme. An excerpt:

The goal of cap and trade is to drive up the costs of energy in order for people to use less of it. Because just about every business uses energy to produce goods and must pay their own electricity bills, the cost of production for businesses increases, and consumer demand falls for two reasons:

1. Price hikes on goods reduce demand, and
2. People have less disposable income due to higher energy prices.

Overall, production cuts and reduced consumer spending destroy jobs and slow economic growth, which further increases unemployment.

Contact your senators, people! Find out how they are going to vote on this bill. Feel free to post what you find out here. I know that Vitter and Landrieu of LA are both on record against it.

Related Posts:
Waxman is off the Mark
Inhofe: Waxman-Markey Dead in the Water?
What's in the Waxman-Markey Bill?
Fun Facts on Cap and Trade
The Cap and Trade Anti-Stimulus

See also: The American Issues Project

Bankrupting the Coal Industry

On November 2 I posted the widely circulated YouTube video of the Chronicle interview where Obama promises to bankrupt the coal industry (there were some lively comments on that post, also!).

Now it seems as if this is a promise Obama is determined to keep. You might remember that he said this:

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches. The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.

Right. So last month the EPA, striking fear in Appalachia, announced they will review 150 to 200 coal mine permit applications. They singled out two proposed mines in West Virginia and Kentucky (McCain won in West Va., 53% to 46% and McCain carried Kentucky 58% to 41%).

The National Mining Association estimates these reviews could threaten 77,500 jobs. How's that for a stimulus? Of course, environmentalists see it differently - they see it as an "opportunity" to spark new green jobs.

In addition, Ed Morrissey writes today about the EPA decision to "renege on a permit already granted to open a coal-generator plant" in New Mexico:

"In a dramatic move yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew the air quality permit it issued last summer for the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant, which is slated to be built on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region just southwest of Farmington, New Mexico. …

"Jeff Holmstead, former head of the air program at EPA and now head of the Environmental Strategies Group at Bracewell & Giuliani, the law firm representing the plant’s developer, Sithe Global, said in a statement that he has “never seen anything like it.”

"'I don’t think anyone ever imagined that the new team at EPA would seem to have such little regard for due process or basic notions of fairness,' Holmstead said. 'Everyone understands that a new Administration has discretion to change rules and policies prospectively. But I’ve never seen any Administration try to change policies and rules retroactively.'"

Yesterday, the WSJ had an article about the Obama administration attempting to reverse a Bush rule regarding mountaintop mining. The coal industry defends this practice as a safer and cheaper alternative to underground mining, but the environmentalists argue that it damages water quality and stream habitats.

This reversal will affect the central Appalachia region in West Virginia which produces about 10% of U.S. coal.

I honestly don't know enough about the mountaintop mining issue to pass judgment; I do know that the coal industry is required to restore much of the land that they damage, but this can't be done in it's entirety. I also know that you can't have it both ways. We are a nation dependent on the coal industry; you can't simply cut that off overnight because the new administration decides that some streams and fish are getting the short end of the stick.

Taken all together, however, these recent decisions by the Obama administration against the coal industry appear to advance his promise to bankrupt the coal industry.

Overall, this seems to me a reckless policy when also taken with his decision to limit offshore drilling and the long-standing position of restricted domestic drilling (ANWAR, for example). We do not have these fantasy renewable energy policies in place.

If Obama wants to go tilting at windmills and build wind farms, lets get those things in place and running effectively before we decimate our other sources of energy and put thousands of people out of work.

Bankrupting Coal Plants?

Transcript:
Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.
I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It’s just that it will bankrupt them.