Clean Power Plan = De-industrialization in disguise

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council was created by federal statute in 1980 and covers Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Hidden in their new long-term energy plan to retire three large coal plants between 2020 and 2026 is the closure of Colstrip Steam Electric Station. This is part of a long-term plan to de-industrialize America. Just look at the evidence. A spokesman for NorthWestern Energy, which owns a 30 percent share of one of Colstrip’s four units and 10 percent share of the overall plant, called the plant’s closure “a reasonable expectation.”

The Northwest Energy Coalition, a pro-environmental group, heaped praise on the council’s plan because the plan calls for no new natural gas plants for at least the next decade, and complained the study did not include the removal of the four dams on the Snake River. They also claim conservation is the “region’s second-largest energy resource after hydropower.”

That is nonsense and can only, if ever, be accomplished by forcing conservation on the people using the legal system’s steel fist wrapped in a velvet glove. They and other environmental groups have judges at all levels in their back pocket. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a prime example.

The Clean Power Plan statement that wind energy contributes 8 percent to the energy grid is not accurate. There is no way to quantify wind energy output. There are days the wind blows and days it does not. Nature, not man, controls when the wind will blow to power the turbines atop the windmill towers. The only way you could operate the windmills 24/7 on windless days is to plug them into an existing energy source, which would produce a net loss of power on the grid.

Did anyone notice solar energy is not listed as an energy source in the plan? The reason is that solar power, like windpower, is dependent on nature’s cooperation. Also, their energy production per unit is very small when compared to dam-, coal- and natural gas-powered energy plants. Also, windpower and solar energy costs per kilowatt are extremely expensive. The council also says that energy loads grew at an average rate of only 0.4 percent. There are two reasons:

1) Demand response requires large industrial users, such as aluminum, steel and manufacturers, to curtail production so their energy can be shifted to the cities during heat waves and cold snaps. Most of the aluminum plants that once spread across the Northwest have been or will soon be scrapped. They were shut down not for lack of customers. It was that the Bonneville Power Administration could not generate enough power for both the large industrial users and cities when power demand peaked.

Industry must have uninterruptable 24/7 energy to maintain a consistent production level that Bonneville Power cannot guarantee. In 2014 Germany’s huge Krupp Steel Company and the chemical giant that produces Bayer Aspirin were going to build another steel mill and chemical plant in Germany. Germany had previously closed their nuclear energy facilities, resulting in an energy shortage, and energy prices skyrocketed. They built those facilities in the Third World (undeveloped countries), where energy is plentiful and cheap, depriving thousands of Germans of high-paying direct and indirect jobs. Sound familiar?

2) The largest user of energy in the four-state area is the Seattle Metropolitan area. The city’s leaders in the late 1930s had foresight, and the people were willing to pay higher taxes to build their own dams and transmission lines rather than rely on the federal government. They supply the city’s heavy industrial base, huge aero-space industry, and massive port operations with uninterruptable energy at the reasonable cost to their customers even though Seattle’s energy needs continue to increase yearly. Their energy consumption is not counted by Bonneville Power, which explains why energy usage has grown only 0.4 percent.

Something else is happening to make the United States a non-manufacturing nation.

1. Companies will move their operations to another country when energy costs become prohibitive.

2. U.S. industries are the most overly regulated in the world, required to comply with the highest environmental standards.

3. China and India are the two biggest polluters and are the beneficiaries of U.S. manufacturers leaving the country. That’s because the United Nations lists them as developing nations not subject to strict environmental rules that the developed countries must follow.

The labor union’s membership in industries is shrinking every year. The result is they are not outspoken about the loss of industrial jobs and indirectly aid and abet those who want the U.S. to be a non-industrial nation. Instead they are concentrating their recruiting efforts in two areas:

—Unionizing bureaucrats at all government levels. City, county, state, and federal governments keep increasing their payrolls, and their operations cannot be moved offshore.

—Workers in the low-wage tourist and hospitality industries that are at the bottom of the wage scale welcome unionization.

Socialist Bernie Sanders and progressive Hillary Clinton are saying let’s tax the rich more to provide free college tuitions and more social programs. A few years ago a study was done to address that issue. The government hypothesized taking away all of the assets and/or cash from those who earned a million dollars or more and applying the total amount to the U.S. budget. The country would be out of money within five months. You can’t get money from those on public welfare or assistance programs and Social Security beneficiaries.

The gross wages and salaries of those employed in the public sector, military, judiciary, and bureaucrats are dependent upon receiving tax money from businesses and the industrial working class. Yes, they pay taxes after receiving their gross wages or salaries first from the private sector. But what do those high school graduates who do not go to college do with idle time after the industrial jobs are gone? Under the neutering of America’s industrial base called de-industrialization, there will be no middle class to pay for public sector employment nor good-paying industrial jobs for young people.

I don’t need to draw you a picture of what will happen to and in America. If you think chaos and anarchy can’t happen in America, you are sadly mistaken.

America is at a financial crossroad and to survive we must again become a productive nation. If Americans become productive again, they can hold their head high and boast once again with national pride, “Made in America.” Make it happen.

John Rallis is a resident of Columbia Falls.