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All the President's (Coal) Men
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Obama's Wyoming Giveaway
What really happened in Wyoming last week?
Perhaps we should ask billionaire coal hauler Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha."
(Warren Buffett receives the Medal of Freedom at the White House on Feb. 15, 2011)
Energy and climate analysts and Big Green organizations are still staggering around for an answer to the Obama administration's blockbuster news in Wyoming's coalfields last week to green-light the mining of an estimated 750 million-2.4 billion tons of coal on public lands. According to environmental analysts, "when burned, the coal threatens to release more than 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, equal to the annual emissions from 300 coal-fired power plants."
As Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar scrambles to explain his wildly exaggerated claims of the coal lease sales from his announcement, the truth is that this mind-boggling announcement comes on the heels of EPA administrator's proposed new rules to crack down on mercury emissions from coal-fired plants--that will, in effect, continue the move away from coal-fired energy.
It would be easy to point an accusing finger at Salazar, the former cowboy Senator from neighboring coal-rich Colorado who accepted massive amounts of contributions from dirty energy companies, and whose Bureau of Land Management quietly gave the green light for another 430 million tons of coal at the Antelope strip mine in Wyoming last year (within hours of the EPA's crackdown on mountaintop removal mining operations in central Appalachia).
But I don't think Salazar is the culprit on this Wyoming spring sale: President Obama needs to be called out for his less than transparent catering to his long-time billionaire and coal-profiteering friends.
Consider this: One month after jointly visiting Arch Coal's mammoth Black Thunder strip mine in Wyoming with a fleet of nine private jets, billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett sat in President Obama's Oval Office on December 14th and discussed ways to improve the economy.
As the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett understands the economics of coal better than anyone: He owns the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad that transports most of Wyoming's vast coal supply around the country, along with the utility company, MidAmerican Energy, which operates 11 coal-fired power plants, including four in Wyoming. To be fair, MidAmerican Energy also generates an estimated 2.9 MW of wind energy.
(Little secret: While central Appalachia tends to make the news for its horrific mountaintop removal operations and underground mine disasters, Wyoming is truly King Coal, and provides 40 percent of our nation's coal production.)
Plains Justice, a citizens group on the mining frontlines in Power River Basin, has long called the federal land leasing program "the biggest corporate bail-out of all." Clean Energy Action in Colorado has also questioned the growing and largely overlooked costs of coal mining in the Power River Basin.
Everyone in the coal biz also knows that last week's spring sale giveaway in Wyoming has as much to do with a controversial and impending coal export terminal proposed in the state of Washington--and geared toward Asian markets---as much as US markets.
Only days before their December meeting with the President, market analysts were abuzz with Buffett's and Gate's interest in the coal industry. One headline blurted out: Billionaires want coal for Christmas.
Well, looks like the billionaire's coal Christmas came in March.
Let's look at the timeline:
Nov. 10: Gates and Buffett visit Arch Coal's mine in Wyoming, and Buffett hails the trip as "fascinating."
Dec. 10: Wall Street is already certain that Buffett will continue this gamble on coal.
Dec. 14th. Gates and Buffett meet with Obama at the White House to discuss the economy.
Jan 6th: Wall Street analysts now say Buffett is betting BIG on COAL.
Feb. 15th: President Obama awards Buffett the Medal of Freedom at the White House.
Feb. 26th: In Buffet's annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter, he reminds all listeners that his coal-transporting railroads (nearly 300 million tons of coal a year) "will increase Berkshire's "normal" earning power by nearly 40% pre-tax and by well over 30% after-tax."
March 23rd: Citing the nuclear tragedy in Japan and world energy needs, Salazar opens 750 million-2.4 billions tons of coal on public lands in Wyoming, only days after EPA administrator Lisa Jackson cracks down on coal-fired plants.
Ah, the great game of capitalism and Big Coal machinations.
And the great dirty coal ship moves on.
- Posted in
5 Comments so far
Show All"To be fair, MidAmerican Energy also generates an estimated 2.9 MW of wind energy."
No need to be fair, that 2.9 MW is less than 0.2 percent of the output of a single average coal-burning power plant.
And I don't even want to think of what that picture of Obama reverently draping that medal on the sholders of that filthy capitalist robber-baron scumbag is doing to my blood pressure right now...
So, with the "high-tech" sector losing it's shine, Bill Gates is thinking of investing his ample billions into coal.
So much for the now-hoary futurist prophesies that "high-tech" would herald a new clean, green future of "kowledge" not smokestacks.
And the March 24, announcement is especially chilling. Cries to "abolish nuclear power" are going to backfire terribly with global consequences.
There is no safe energy. Sun, wind, and water may not pollute once up and running, but the process of building them would use as much fossil fuels and disrupt things as much as any other big construction project. And how many would have to be built in how many locations to replace coal and nuclear? It's a mess no matter how you look at it.
Only three comments?
Oh, that right, burning coal produces hundreds of toxic substances, and contributres to potentially life-ending global heating, but it isn't radioactive, or at least not very much so.
That picture of Obama putting the metal on Buffet is grotesque.
Where was Buffet on 9/11? Watching the event with Bush at the Offut Airforce Base?
Have a look at these coincidences:
On 911 there happened several war games to take place.
One was "the annual Global Guardian exercise, which involved testing command and control of the nation's nuclear-armed missiles, submarines and bombers."
(Omaha World Herald, 9/8/02)
President Bush didn't fly back to Washington D.C. due to a very strange threat against Air Force One but flew to Braksdale and then at 2.50 p.m. to Offutt Air Force Base.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/16/wbush16.xml
Offutt was well equipped:
One screen "showed the status of all airborne aircraft, provided by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, to track Federal Aviation Administration efforts to clear the sky."
(Omaha World Herald, 9/8/02)
They could monitor intelligence sources.
(Omaha World Herald, 9/8/02)
"Another part of the Global Guardian exercise put three military command aircraft packed with sophisticated communications equipment in the air.
The three E-4B National Airborne Operations Center planes, nicknamed "Doomsday" planes during the Cold War, are based at Offutt.
The airplanes give top government officials alternative command posts from which to direct U.S. forces, execute war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities in times of national emergency."
(Omaha World Herald, 2/27/02)
"Military authorities canceled the exercise after the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, but all three of the E-4Bs remained in the air."
(Omaha World Herald, 2/27/02)
Well what did these planes do on 911?
And why didn't it help that not only the FAA followed what was happening in the skies but also Offutt?
Another coincidence that the second richest man of the US, Warren Buffett had his annual charity event at Offutt.
Adm. Richard Mies directed an annual training exercise.
(Omaha World Herald, 9/8/02) apparently took some time off the morning of 911:
Some of the visitors already were at StratCom, having breakfast with then-commander in chief Adm. Richard Mies.
(Omaha World Herald , 2/27/02)
Invited were also important CEO.
eg Anne Tatlock, Fiduciary's chairman and CEO
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2002/02/04/story3.html
Being at the party saved her life.
Next coincidence is that Warren Buffett happened to have acquired NetJets in 1998.
http://www.netjets.com/News%20And%20Info/newsandinfo_main.asp
Apparently at one point UA 93 was tracked by an executive jet of NetJets.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20020808-1446-moussaoui-pictures.html
Warren Buffett himself "was watching television in his home in Omaha, Nebraska, as he got ready to host his last annual Charity Classic golf and tennis tournament."
http://www.robertpmiles.com/buffetair.html
(validity of source unclear for me!)
Interestingly yet another coincidence:
Al Ueltschi, president of Flight-Safety International, one of Berkshire’s two flight service subsidiaries, was getting ready to golf in the Classic.
http://www.robertpmiles.com/buffetair.html
Flight-Safety International is located where?
Exactly!
In Vero Beach that nobody bothers to investigate .....
Put all these details together and Offutt looks hell like an interesting place to be on 911.