The Virginian Pilot’s Energy Policy Just Got a Test, and People are Dying.

The Virginian Pilot, my local paper has receives national attention recently.  Its editor decided that a black mob attacking a pair of his reporters was not news.  When the story finally surfaced, the Pilot’s editorial judgment was … questioned … exposed … revealed for the sorry mix of bad judgment mixed with political correctness for which the paper is notorious. 

As you may have heard, the Mid-Atlantic area has been hit by some pretty strong wind and thunderstorms recently which left millions without power and dozens dead.  Meanwhile summer temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees are forcing people from their homes and are leading to more  death among the old and infirm.   

This did not have to happen.  Oh, the storm and storms like it can’t be helped.  But what this storm proves is that modern life is totally dependent of our technological infrastructure, and infrastructure that the opinion shapers at the Virginian Pilot has been working tirelessly to degrade.   

Power companies have been working for years to upgrade the power grid, increase power production and develop low cost reliable new power plants.  And each one has been met by fierce resistance from the Virginian Pilot.  A new coal fired plant has been met with gleeful predictions of environmental doom from the Pilot.  When a proposal to mine uranium for nuclear power plants was proposed, the Pilot quoted an opponent as saying that

“… no amount of oversight and regulation could ensure that uranium would not foul water supplies and farm fields.”

  The Virginian Pilot is also vehemently opposed to oil exploration in Virginia.  Reacting to a proposal to drill off the coast, the editors opined:

“Rather than drilling, it's far wiser to redirect our nation's long-term energy plan to scenarios that don't involve massive loss of marine life, seafood industry jobs and tourism dollars”

...  always predicting environmental devastation as the inevitable result of offshore oil exploration.  

So when the Virginian Pilot is not opposing building new power plant using proven technology, what is it proposing?  Wind farms and solar power, with not a whisper about the spectacular failures of Solyndra and the “green energy” experiment in Spain that helped bankrupt that country. 

When the Pilot reports on “alternative” energy sources, such as the Navy’s move to “green fuel” there is never, ever, a cost analysis.  You have to go to other sources, like FOX News, to find out that

“…the fuel -- which does not require engine modifications -- costs $26 a gallon compared to $3.60 a gallon for conventional fuel.” 

You will find cheerleading for all kinds of exotic replacements for coal, oil and nuclear energy.  But there is rarely a hint that the alternatives will not only be less reliable, impractical or be as realistic as powering our economy with unicorn farts.  The issue of cost, if it’s mentioned at all, is dismissed as “slightly higher” but always, always more than offset by thousands - if not millions - of people not dying due to the elimination of those awful, really bad, seriously dirty fossil fuels… (unless they are killed off by excessive heat because they could not afford to run their air conditioners). 
In the Pilot’s world, windmills never kill birds by the score, never shut down because winds are either too weak or too strong, cost nothing to build or maintain.  In the Pilot’s world sunlight is free so solar power never ends when the sun goes down, doesn’t cost anything to build, doesn’t cost anything to maintain, and is instantly responsive to increased or decreased demand.  In the Pilot’s world, Navy ships are trying to cut fuel costs in 2008 by allowing ships to drift, and plan to use $26 a gallon fuel in 2012 because the Obama administration has decreed it; and it all makes sense … in their minds.

So today people are sweltering in hundred degree heat and old people and infants are dying thanks to the efforts of the Luddites at the Virginian Pilot and their amen corner in the rest of the media.  But don't worry about them, the air conditioning at the Virginian Pilot offices is working just fine and the editorial board is preparing stories even now blaming the power companies. 

Who’s ready for a march to the Virginian Pilot offices with shouts of “The Pilot Lied, People Died!”