Posted on 07/26/2011 11:32:26 PM PDT by STARWISE
Complete title:
Right Out of Atlas Shrugged’: Hear an Exasperated Alabama Businessman Tell the Feds – ‘I’m Just Quitting’
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Leaning against a wall during a recent Birmingham, Alabama, public hearing, Bryant listened to an overflow crowd pepper federal officials with concerns about businesses polluting the drinking water and causing cases of cancer.
After two hours, Bryant—a coal mine owner from Jasper—had heard enough and, in a moment being described as “right out of Atlas Shrugged,” took his turn at the microphone:
(note from audio site: For readers of my website, this is the audio of Ronnie Bryant at a public meeting in Birmingham on July 20, 2011. The recording was made on my iPad just to have a record of correct quotes, so the audio quality is poor since it wasn't intended for broadcast purposes.)
Transcript:
Nearly every day without fail…men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage.
They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just…you know…what’s the use?
I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work.
And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I see these guys—I see them with tears in their eyes—looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them.
So…basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.”
The Blaze contacted Bryant, and he remains as resolute as he was at last week’s public hearing. To him, it’s just not worth the time, money, and regulatory hassle to open up a new mine—even one located in a remote area with less environmental impact.
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Worst. President. Ever. In January 2008 Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers.”
He promised that his plan would cause electricity rates to skyrocket.
He wasn’t kidding.
In January the Obama Administration, for the first time ever, blocked an already approved bid to build one of the largest mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachian history.
And, on Wednesday it was reported that Obama’s energy plans will cause electricity rates to necessarily skyrocket…
Just as he promised.
Via US News and World Reports:
Two new EPA pollution regulations will slam the coal industry so hard that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, and electric rates will skyrocket 11 percent to over 23 percent, according to a new study based on government data.
Overall, the rules aimed at making the air cleaner could cost the coal-fired power plant industry $180 billion, warns a trade group.
“Many of these severe impacts would hit families living in states already facing serious economic challenges,” said Steve Miller, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “Because of these impacts, EPA should make major changes to the proposed regulations before they are finalized,” he said.
The EPA, however, tells Whispers that the hit the industry will suffer is worth the health benefits.
For the record… For every green job created by the Obama EPA, four jobs are lost in the economy.
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Madness. Rebellion is truly in the air.
.. Ding!
This might finally be time for the overused quote “So it begins.”
Same article but from a different source - there are many really interesting comments.
http://www.davidmcelroy.org/?p=1586
Could you imagine if all the coal power plant operators said, you know these new regs from the EPA, well, we decided this is no longer the business we want to be in, we are selling everything to highest bidder in pieces. Who wants to buy this stapler, the feds would freak.
In our little town, a gravel mining operation is fighting a battle to open up a new section of an above ground mine. There is not problem with the mine itself, but the fact that the trucks hauling the rocks will have to travel over public roads is the reason for the stoppage of work. The locals are actually fighting because there may be as many as 12 trucks an hour passing their houses. I don’t know exactly how many jobs this will create, but the number will be zero if the locals have their way.
We should just let these people forage for themselves without a penny of support.
I am amazed at the very real stupidity of people that bite the hand that feed them and give them real freedom.
But this is exactly what the administration wants.
Every time there is a similar story I have to wonder - - how many of these out-of-work men Bryant talked about, and their wives and families, always vote Democrat and will vote Democrat again? I often wonder how many people are truly capable of connecting the dots.
(This is a picture, not an advertisement. Advertisements are sent only on request.)
Jeeze ~~
Comment from above site .. shows ya, the John Galts who are old enough will surely be growing in #’s
“My dad closed his business after 30 years of operation because of the environmental theocracy. He wasn’t huge-just employed 6 uneducated, otherwise-unskilled workers. He wasn’t polluting – in fact, he was awarded a U.S. patent for a waste-free plating system.
But the government bureaucrats need someone to pursue to justify their own existence, and slapped him with a lawsuit demanding mounds of paperwork, fines for not previously keeping paperwork they way they liked (fines: $25k/day by statute), environmental impact statements, etc.
He shut down. He now owns nothing. He spends his days plays golf, with his model trains, and with his grandchildren. His only income is now Social Security.
His quote: “These government parasites spent years hounding and harassing me. I’ll parasite off them for awhile and see how they like it.”
Madness. Rebellion is truly in the air.
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Yes. Civilizations just do not lay down and die when an imbecile becomes the head of state. The Neros, Caligulas and Elagabulus’ of the world do not endure long, or go quietly.
I guess everybody’s seen that Nissan Leaf ad with all the little dirty gas engines powering everything. That ad freaks me out. It’s images are compelling, but the whole thing is a dirty lie. It’s promoting a rhetorical fanatasy. I guess what freaks me out is the realization that this kind of rhetoric can easily prevail over stolid reason.
Yes, a horrible story - one of many. And that’s what the government people do - harass citizens to justify their existence. I saw it many times when we had our construction business.
It’s the US Government v We The People.
"But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or it it already happening and we just don’t know it?"
Um, checked the unemployment numbers lately, esp the U6 numbers? IT'S HAPPENING ON A MASSIVE SCALE RIGHT NOW!!!
Sorry to shout -- and it wasn't directed at you, Aria -- but just WOW!
Caption: “Regulations never hurt MY job”.
Yes, there are many personal stories describing how the regulatory state puts Americans out of business. That is one of the best series of Internet comments I have ever read.
But hey, let's assume some super genius figures out a way to MAKE it work with NO environmental impact. Well, the EPA, animal rights groups, and every ever leftscum group will stop any actual implementation for excuses ranging from “you are killing (some common worthless creature with a cute name) by doing this” to “by converting that energy you are causing global warming/cooling/no change (which is bad because climate should change).”
And people believe this garbage. Most of ‘em. Frankly, they deserve their coming fate...
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