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Deal 'opens the door' to wind power

DEFINITELY A WIN-WIN-WIN for South Dakota's Economy!

One of the biggest hinderances to the development of more wind power in South Dakota has been a lack of enough transmission line capacity to get the electricity to where it's needed.

There is a positive logic to the addition of a new coal-burning plant also. The US has an abundance of coal, and large deposits of high quality low-sulfur coal are just to the west in Wyoming. There is a synergy that comes into play here with a three-way synergistic development of South Dakota's utility and transportation infrastructure which is catalyzed by the planned construction of a new coal-burning power plant at Big Stone.

The first element of this synergy is the expansion of the DM&E Railroad, which, in spite of the usual opposition from envirowacko activist groups and assorted other NIMBY (Non-In-My-Backyard types pushed through approval of extending it's lines into the Wyoming coal fields, and upgrade of its existing mainlines to handle the greatly increased traffic that results from this. (See note 1 in extended entry) This increases the availability of coal for new plants.

With the abundance of coal, and modern abatement technology, it is possible to burn low-sulfur coal with a minimum amount of air pollution, plus it helps to increase the electric power capacity, which is an essential positive factor for continued economic growth in the area. (See Note 2)

Finally, this proposed coal plant will bring in a significantly serious excess in electrical power transmission capacity, above and beyound the needs of the new plant. This excess capacity is available for the development of large(r) scale wind turbine developments, which (a) provides yet more electricity, (b) is a clean, renewable energy source, and (c) provides yet another boost to the local economic structure.

So, what's the "win-win-win"? More needed electrical power, use of domestic coal instead of imported oil, and the enabled development of even cleaner wind power capacity. Three birds with one "Big Stone". Not too bad.

Bottom of the sixth: Boy, Oswalt is certainly the great equalizer tonight, isn't he? He's deflated a lot of the momentum that the Cardinals had after Monday night's game. Astros lead 4-1. Middle of the seventh: Biggio scores after Edmonds...

Argus Leader:Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecilia Fire Thunder will face the second call for her impeachment Tuesday when the tribal council hears a complaint filed by William Birdnecklace Tate of Manderson. Tate, who was the tribe's utilities financial manager from...

ssAnne Applebaum, author of Gulag, has a great piece in the Washington Post contrasting the trial of Saddam Hussein with the Nuremburg trials in Germany following World War II. Excerpt:Yet Nuremberg was, in retrospect, a huge success, and as the...

I have held off on denouncing Harriet Miers and calling for her withdrawal, as so many conservative bloggers have been willing to do. The reason is simple. As Michael Ledeen says over at National Review, there is no award for...

If you follow the lefty blogs at all, you know that they're pretty excited about their prospects in 2006. Granted, and as this blog and thousands of others have pointed out, Democrats aren't exactly going to enter 2006 loaded with...

A couple of related items contribute to optimism:

Constitution headed for win in Iraq

Another factual refutation of the anti-war moonbat assertion that the efforts in Iraq are failing.

Never mind, they haven't let details like facts trouble their minds before, so this probably won't matter to them either.

13 VS.347

Here's a good blog post from GOP Vixen noting 13 terr attacks during the Iraq constitution vote, combpared to 347 attacks during the first election over there. So what's not progress about THIS?

The Boss still has faith. After meeting with Steinbrenner for 45 minutes to an hour in Tampa, Fla., Torre was sure he wanted to return for his 11th season as Yankees manager. "We didn't use the word love, but it...

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