Nothing About The Bakken: Wind Farms And Eagles Officially Off My Radar Scope; Environmentalists Not Worried, Why Should I? -- April 21, 2016

ObamaCare

 

ObamaCare -- it's in better shape than "you" think; and it's here to stay. This is why I would advise GOP to stay as far away from ObamaCare as possible. For the GOP, it's a win-win. If ObamaCare succeeds, the GOP can move on to other issues; health care has always been a sticky wicket; everyone would win if any health care system succeeds. If ObamaCare fails, it will fail on its own; it doesn't need the assistance of GOP. I would never support Ted Cruz on his objective to "repeal" ObamaCare ("naive"). I won't support Trump for other reasons.

But then this, from Fiscal Times: ObamaCare is in such great shape, that huge premium increases are forecast for 2017.

Amid rising drug and health care costs and roiling market dynamics, the spokesperson for the nation’s health insurers is predicting substantial increases next year in Obamacare premiums and related costs.

Without venturing a specific percentage increase, Marilyn Tavenner, the president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said in an interview with Morning Consult that the culmination of market shifts and rising health care costs will force stark increases in health insurance rates in the coming year.

“I’ve been asked, what are the premiums going to look like?” she said. “I don’t know because it also varies by state, market, even within markets. But I think the overall trend is going to be higher than we saw previous years. That’s my big prediction.”

If Tavenner is right, Obamacare will jump dramatically—last year’s premium for the popular silver-level plan surged 11 percent on average. Although Tavenner didn’t mention deductibles, in 2016, some states saw jumps of 76 percent, while the average deductible for a 27-year-old male on a silver plan was 8 percent.

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Bureaucratic Math

1/2 = One-Half

By cutting the number of wind turbines in half, the number-crunchers estimate the number of bald eagles killed annually would also be cut in half. A huge thank you to Don for noting this. Neither of us can make this stuff up. Here it is, in their own words:

Chokecherry and Sierra Madre, the largest onshore wind farm planned in the United States, would annually kill 10 to 14 golden eagles, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service projected in a draft environmental study released Wednesday.

That figure represents a substantial reduction from the 46 to 64 golden eagle fatalities estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2012.

Federal officials attributed the decline to several factors. The permit application submitted by the project’s developer, Power Company of Wyoming, only considers the 500 turbines proposed in the project’s first phase. A second phase calls for an additional 500 turbines.

I used to worry about the plight of the golden eagle. No more. It seems there are way more golden eagles than anyone thought possible; so many that killing upwards of a 100 eagles every year by one or two wind farms is no big deal in the eyes of the Federal government.

Wind farms and the plight of eagles: another issue off my radar scope. 

But the developers are getting clever. Estimate a huge annual kill, and then dial that number back and everyone moves on.

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Minnesota Should Start Burning Their Forests -- Amy Klobucher (D-MN)

Somehow, Burning Wood Is Carbon Neutral

The first place to start cutting down those beautiful trees: where the new huge transmission line will be sited.

Link here.