Eight Senate “Coal State Democrats” Write Challenge To EPA, North Dakota’s Senators Conspicuously Absent

According to this article from CNSNews.com, a letter from Jay Rockefeller is challenging the EPA’s attempts to regulate CO2 and bludgeon traditional providers of energy. It was signed by seven other Senators:

“The letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was signed by Democrats Mark Begich of Alaska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Carl Levin of Michigan and Max Baucus of Montana.”

So much for that clout and tireless fighting for North Dakota that we hear about from Senators Conrad and Dorgan, eh? They can’t even stamp their name on a letter standing up for our state’s energy producers.

How’s that Hope™ and Change™ working for you, my fellow North Dakotans? Right now our state is the only one bucking the recession trend. The federal government wants to put a stop to that, and our Senators can only sit like good little Democrat pets and vote the party line. Where’s all that seniority, clout, and experience they brag about every election season?

Boundary layer

I was out watcing airplanes with the toddlers the other day when I spotted this neat effect in the plumes across the river.

Notice how the steam from the power plant hits a certain level, then veers off horizontally. The billows rising from the refinery are doing something totally different, and reaching higher in this instance. It reminds me of a late night photo I got of the refinery and power plant from Highway 1804 north of Bismarck. The steam from the refinery was forming a horizontal line straight south, and the power plant’s steam was heading straight north. I’ll have to look that one up later.

This is a result of the steam hitting a layer of air with a different temperature (and, I presume, a resulting change in pressure). Yes, I did take some astronomy and meteorology in college, but I’m sorry to say I don’t remember many specifics. It makes for a neat photograph, though.