When I heard the Huffington Post recently carried an op-ed from Robert Redford bashing a new coal mine slated to open near Utah’s Bryce-Canyon, I thought to myself, “There he goes again.” And once I read the op-ed for myself, and thought about other comments he’s made in past months, I couldn’t help but think the calendar year 2010 has been a bad one for Mr. Redford.
Just think of it: in late spring he blamed the Gulf Oil Spill on Bush and Cheney (although they’d been out of office for over a year), then spent the early part of the summer trashing Republicans for opposing Obama’s energy bill (which was nothing more than a brazen attempt to legislate oil and coal companies out of business in the USA), then directed a movie in which he found a way to use the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a segue into bashing George W. Bush for his response to 9/11.
Some of this stuff is so loony I can’t help but wonder whether Redford is getting his talking points from Keith Olbermann, Sheryl Crow, or that crazy bald man who led the Heaven’s Gate Cult on their journey to meet up with the Hale Bopp Comet.
Honestly folks, where does he keep coming up with this stuff?
For example, in the Huffington Post his opening argument is that coal mining is an outdated mode of getting energy because “many cleaner, more sustainable ways to power our economy abound.”
Where are these cleaner, more sustainable ways Mr. Redford? And do they exist apart from government subsidies or are they wholly dependent on taxpayer funds for their continuance? (If the latter, then the “sustainable ways” Redford peddles are actually nothing more than taxpayer-sponsored green jobs that the market won’t support.)
According to Redford, the biggest part of the answer is solar power and wind turbines. (Can someone check and see if Larry Hagman is available for comment?) And the reason these are better is not only because of their supposed sustainability, but because Redford claims they allow us to get energy while simultaneously preserving the beautiful view of “an iconic landscape.” Well, what about the view of an iconic landscape ruined by ugly wind turbines?
Anyone who has ever driven through heartland America on I-40 knows that a growing portion of the Oklahoma, West Texas, and New Mexico landscapes are being desecrated by wind-farms via rows of heinous-looking, government-subsidized wind turbines blanketing the southern plains. Of course, the fact that these landscapes aren’t in places Redford visits may disqualify them from being “iconic” in the actor’s mind, which at least makes his basis for ignoring facts and calling for the passage of “more policies to promote clean energy sources like wind, [and] solar” predictable. (Not correct mind you, simply predictable coming from a leftist.)
At the every end of his op-ed, Redford proved that his ignorance was matched (if not exceeded) by his arrogance when he called on environmental activists throughout America to contact Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert and urge him to cancel the proposed mine. For my part, I’m hoping Governor Herbert takes a different route and names the mine after Redford.
Wouldn’t that be awesome? You could hike Bryce-Canyon during the morning, picnic for lunch, then tour Robert Redford’s Utah Coal Mine all afternoon.
It would serve him right.
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