If you paid attention during the 2008 presidential campaign, you likely heard candidate Barack Obama foretell that he would bankrupt the coal industry, and that under his energy policies “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

For decades now, North Dakotans have been duped into thinking that we need to continue to send Byron “Skybox” Dorgan, Kent “Countrywide” Conrad, and Earl “The Pearl” Pomeroy to Washington on our behalf, because they’ve accumulated so much seniority and clout. They’ve grown very bold and comfortable in this role, scaring North Dakotans into repeatedly sending them back to office and doling out federal dollars when they return. They warn that any replacement would have to start from square one, wielding no effective influence on behalf of North Dakota and the interests of our state. So…what have we gotten for that? Zero. Well, unless you count the government health care takeover…

Now on his way out the door, and employing a “scorched earth” policy toward his country and the North Dakotans who enabled him, Senator Dorgan has these foreboding words for our nation’s energy industry:

“Regulations are coming in the future. If coal does nothing, coal will lose.”
North Dakota’s economy has remained robust during the national recession for a few different reasons, one of which is the solid energy industry. The policies of these liberal Democrats will decimate that. We don’t have the next election to use as an incentive to bring Byron Dorgan back to earth…what about his cohorts? I don’t think they’re any more interested in North Dakota’s economic future than he is. Once their re-election chances are sealed one way or the other, can we expect such candor from Conrad and Pomeroy?

UPDATE: This story from KFYR TV news shows that Byron Dorgan and his hairpiece are completely detached from reality. He’s pushing legislation to push people toward electric cars, while simultaneously trying to strangle the industry which generates much of the electricity that would be used to charge them. He also ignores the load that charging a bunch of these magic vehicles would put on an already strained electric grid.

That’s why I’ve always considered liberal/progressive/Democrat policies as suicidal. He’s attacking us from both sides: making energy production more expensive and difficult, while forcing us into a corner with his pie-in-the-sky electric vehicles (which ought to be FANTASTIC in a North Dakota winter). Senator Dorgan is long overdue for replacement, as are his like-minded comrades in Washington.