• Coal costs less than any other major fossil fuel source.
• America has more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves.
• According to an electric power industry journal, 23 of the 25 power plants in the U.S. that have the lowest operating costs (and therefore provide power to their consumers at the lowest prices) are powered by coal.
• Today, America’s coal-based generating fleet is 70% cleaner (based upon regulated emissions per unit of energy produced) thanks, in part, to $50 billion invested in new technologies.
• Since 1970, the use of coal to generate electricity in the U.S. has nearly tripled in response to growing electricity demand
• U.S. electricity demand continues to increase even as energy efficiency gains are made. Despite the fact that we are continuing to become more energy efficient, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that electricity demand will grow by 41% by 2030
• Using coal to generate electricity is less than a 1/3 of the cost of other fuels.
• Intermittent energy resources like wind and solar are used for meeting peak energy demand because they are not always available. That is different from coal, which is used to provide “baseload” power — the constant, steady supply of electricity we depend upon throughout the day.
• America has more than 200 years of available coal reserves

...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...

A power source that supplies half the country with energy and he wants to "bankrupt" them.  The Senator has already stated he is against nuclear power until the find a means to "safely contain the spent rods".  He has put himself on record as against oil based energy.  At this point in time, wind and solar power are not stable and reliable enough to supply all our energy needs.  That leaves hydro-electric power, he has however made no statements regarding the construction of new hydro-electric dams.

I am all in favor of alternative energy sources.  But let us not dismantle through the punitive measures described by Senator Obama our present energy sources to achieve his utopian goals.  Or, on a more cynical level, his blatant source of tax dollars to support his massive government buildup.

Thanks to Charles Johnson at LGF.