Wow, It Never Quits -- A New York Times Update On The Centerpiece Of President Obama's Climate Plan -- July 5, 2016

Yes, that was the headline in The New York Times:

A model for "clean coal" runs off the tracks. A Mississippi project, a centerpiece of President Obama's climate plan, has been plagued by problems that managers tried to conceal, and by cost overruns and questions of who will pay.

Those were the words of the Times' editors, not mine: a centerpiece of President Obama's climate plan.

I never knew this plan was traced back to President Obama. I thought it was much older than that, and it was simply an on-going project that he inherited. Let's check wiki, timeline:

• 2008: conceptual design initiated
• 2010: project approved
• 2010: construction begins

And the timeline continued, but I believe President Obama was inaugurated in early 2009, and I would assume that if the "conceptual design" was initiated in 2008, there were thoughts for this plant long before that.

I have trouble calling this "Obama's" albatross but that's what The New York Times would have us believe.

Now back to the article.

The plant was not only a central piece of the Obama administration’s climate plan, it was also supposed to be a model for future power plants to help slow the dangerous effects of global warming.

The project was hailed as a way to bring thousands of jobs to Mississippi, the nation’s poorest state, and to extend a lifeline to the dying coal industry.

The sense of hope is fading fast, however. The Kemper coal plant is more than two years behind schedule and more than $4 billion over its initial budget, $2.4 billion, and it is still not operational.

The Times asked who would pay for this debacle? Well, that's easy. The local ratepayers and if that becomes a political issue later this summer, taxpayers across the nation will pay for it.