The RoanokeSlant

Roanoke Times, 12/13/06, Pg 1 & 8: Va. State Sen John Edwards says the intermodal site must comply with local ordinances.
-
After many months of media harping about the need for a railway component to the I-81 corridor, NS proposed a local intermodal site for the cargo transfer between trucks and rail cars. One might think the so called “environmentalists” would be assisting in getting this site established. Hold on! Not so fast! There are adverse consequences to the proposed site. What a surprise. So, NS has identified another dozen potential sites that they are evaluating as an alternative. That has resulted in twelve-times as many complaints and now we have help from Sen. Edwards who adds absolutely no value-add to the issue except to hopefully collect some votes by representing the “downtrodden and victimized” against the big bad NS.
-
This all looks just like the power-plant heifer-dust situation. We have an aging power-plant industry and we have been adding 2-million people per year to our population for over 50 years. As a result there are now 150 new US coal-fired power plants in the approval process. Many have expensive carbon dioxide reduction components designed in. Why are be building coal-fired plants while the rest of the world is building nuclear plants as fast as they can?
-
The current flap over AEP’s rate increase is also indicative of the “we want good service, but we don’t want to pay for it” mentality. The significant increased cost of fuel, new emission controls facilities and power line construction would certainly result in higher electric rates. These are all the things that the “public” says they want but doesn’t want to pay for.
-
What’s Va. State Sen John Edwards’ solution to all this?
-
Prior items:
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2006/09/global-warming-fixed.html
-
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2005/06/wind-power.html
-
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2005/08/plant-emissions.html
-