NBC’s Thompson: Let Them Eat Wind or Solar Power!

Global warming alarmist Anne Thompson has shown a propensity for having little regard for economic reality.

Thompson offered viewers on the February 21 broadcast of the "NBC Nightly News" a variety of reasons why building a badly-needed coal-fired power plant in an isolated part of Nevada is a bad idea.

"Critics say emissions are exactly the issue, because coal-fired power is the nation's biggest producer of CO₂ emissions," Thompson said in a February 21 report from Ely, Nev. "That's why Nevada is in the center of this fight. The Ely energy center, which would sit in this valley, along with the other two proposed coal-fired plants, could more than double those greenhouse gas emissions, sending another 31 million tons into the sky."

What's solution does Thompson find more appropriate?

Try unreasonable and inefficient wind and solar power.

"But it's [coal] also more polluting than solar power or wind power," Thompson said to Steve Miller, president of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) - an advocacy group that supports building more coal-fired plants.

According to Thompson's "Our Planet" series report, the plant would bring 150 jobs and millions in tax dollars for Ely, Nev. That would be a shot in the arm for the Nevada economy - especially as it is getting rocked by the subprime fallout.

Such a project would be a big deal for the Ely economy alone. It's hard to imagine any wind or solar power project bringing that sort of economic development to Ely. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 11.3 percent of the city's families live below the poverty line, compared to a 9.2 percent national average.

But the positive effects a new coal power plant would have on Ely weren't enough to sway Thompson in its favor. Instead, she featured another global warming alarmist to decry coal power.

James Hansen, a NASA scientist frequently cited by global warming alarmists, appeared in the segment and called for "a moratorium on construction of new coal-fired power plants or we don't have any chance of stopping global climate change."