I reported recently on EPA rules that ran the risk of causing shut downs of plants in Texas and elsewhere. But that was before the massive heatwave began putting the real strain on them. So much so that they are almost at full capacity. And unfortunately, the EPA is only tightening it’s grip.
Via Wall Street Journal:
The agency is now tightening nearly every eco-regulation in existence, abusing in particular traditional air pollutant laws to shut down coal-fired power plants. This cluster of overlapping rules will cause far more cumulative damage than merely one or another rule would by itself.
A utility, for instance, might be able to comply with a single new rule, but under the EPA firehose it might be forced to retire some of its operations. Beyond the direct costs to the utility, plant closures would lead to job losses and higher prices for consumers and business, with their own knock-on effects.
Some of the power plants, like Edison Electric, are calling for more time to comply with these onerous regulations so as to help prevent any economic or energy disruptions. In a heatwave and a down economy, you’d think the EPA would be receptive. Unfortunately, the source of these rules, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, believes that the greater good that is being served comes ahead of these petty concerns.
In fact, Jackson believes that there is no reason to be concerned about the economics whatsoever. After all, what do the industry leaders know about their own industry when compared to a former chemical engineer?
WSJ:
This cost-benefit bias may explain why Ms. Jackson could claim at a “green jobs” conference in February that under the Clean Air Act, “For every $1 we have spent, we have gotten $40 of benefits in return. So you can say what you want about EPA’s business sense. We know how to get a return on our investment.”
Essentially what Jackson is saying is that the return on investment for the EPA, in the form of regulatory fees, is more important than the very industries that they are tasked with regulating.
Worse yet, they are risking the health and happiness of the people that they are tasked with protecting. Temperatures in Texas are approaching 110 degrees and industry and utility groups are requesting time to comply with the EPA’s MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technolog) rules which “require coal-fired power plants to install equipment that in some cases is too expensive to afford and in other cases does not currently exist commercially.”
The stated purpose of the rule is to reduce pollution but could force the shut down of enough coal-fired power plants to equal about 30-70 gigawatts of electricity nationwide. For perspective, 1 gigawatt of energy powers about 750,000 homes. Families living in the power grids affected will either have to find another more costly source of energy when economic times are tough and not everyone can afford a solar-powered makeover (which the government is coincidentally offering incentives for citizens to do, though those incentives pale in comparison to the cost) or they will have to simply live with blackouts.
The utility industry says the standard will lead to double digit rate hikes for consumers and require costly upgrades to some power plants. But I seem to recall that someone said that under his plans, power bills would “necessarily skyrocket.”
To add insult to injury, these regulations have been shown to be unnecessary by none other than the EPA itself.
Via The Roanoke Times:
The EPA is proposing regulations to control numerous air pollutants that the agency’s own studies show pose no risk to human health; the health benefits claimed by the EPA for these proposed regulations are actually for pollutants that are already controlled through other existing regulations.
Not to mention the fact that the coal fired power generation is already putting forth plans to reduce their own emissions.
By 2015, the coal-fired power generation industry will have invested $125 billion in coal utilization technologies that burn coal cleaner and with more efficiency.
Power plant emissions are already down nearly 80 percent since 1970. A coal-fired power facility built today is, on average, 90 percent cleaner than the one it replaces, according to the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Ironically, the ability to build those new plants is next to impossible due to even more stringent EPA regulations.
Meanwhile, Jackson is scoffing at the mountain of information showing that these rules will cause blackouts, destroy industry, kill jobs, are unnecessary, and impede the ability for the coal industry to enact self regulation that they already had begun. Instead, she’s patting herself on the back for bringing in tons of cash at the cost of jobs and industry.
Lisa Jackson is dutifully executing the President’s radical environmental agenda, having explicitly stated that he intends to put the coal industry out of business, originally through Cap and Trade. His failure to get that job killing monstrosity passed into law has merely changed his path. The objective remains the same.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Anybody out there got one of those......
gekster (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 9:51PM EST (link)bicycle generators for sale.
May a deal for two of them.
They say Republicans are for the rich, Democrats are for the poor.
If they need more voters,
then they have to make more of who they are for.
We are there in the various Tea Party groups, leaderless, but not rudderless.
We steer always toward the Constitutional principles this nation was founded upon.
Erick Brockway
Ok folks, 2012 is here. Get involved
Reportedly come May 15, 2012 rolling blackouts
kattail Thursday, August 4th at 9:55PM EST (link)and industry is already asking who will choose what neighborhoods will be serviced first. There’s an arguement of who will be to blame upon the first fatality due to heat stress. I myself am considering a generator for back up as we have gas service wtihin our area.
Additionally EPA is pushing additional restrictions on cooling water intakes (which is already heavily regulated) for prevention of fish mortality/impingments,
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. – Ronald Reagan
Law of diminishing returns
DerKrieger (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 9:55PM EST (link)Not only have emissions reached a point where further reductions would be prohibitively expensive, as stated in the post the supposed health benefits are immeasurable.
The EPAs motive is as Obama stated, to destroy the coal industry.
What are coal state Dems going to do about it?
What are the coal unions going to do about it?
What is Dick Trumka’s position on this issue? Is he willing to throw the UMCW under the bus?
What is the GOP doing about it?
GOP presidential wannabes need to start promising to overturn all onerous EPA regs. Maybe most industries will then drag their feet and stall until Obama and his apparatchiks are shown the exits next year.
I think these people should be tried for something. Surely destroying our economy is a crime. Is it not?
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” – James Madison
Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” — John Locke, 1690
You will never
ag8tor Friday, August 5th at 7:02AM EST (link)see or hear the answers to your questions in any of the media. They will protect this administration first by making things up if not just lieing about the situation. You won’t hear from the Dems or Trumpka. They will remain silent here. “O” has targeted the coal industry for years now. You will see NOTHING positive about coal fired energy production. Wonder if they will add the lost jobs to the count?
Der Kreiger, 100%on target with this:
rickdeckard Friday, August 5th at 8:38AM EST (link)“GOP presidential wannabes need to start promising to overturn all onerous EPA regs. Maybe most industries will then drag their feet and stall until Obama and his apparatchiks are shown the exits next year.”
My first thought was, what happens if an industry simply says,”No.”? Could the story become page 1 (or at least page 2) while they wait out the 2012 elections? Could electric power become the the poster child for an economy battered by regulatory overreach? I’ve watched for the last 4 years as progressives write the copy for the upcoming republican campaign ads. It’s time for republicans to put the material to use.
Also, republicans need to set the table for January 20, 2013. Our next president should skip the celebrations and head directly to the oval, where legislation to repeal the latest green agenda items and Obamacare will be ready for signatures.
I want to hear the joyful sound of liberal heads exploding everywhere on 1/20/2013.
No is the response
shazam33 Friday, August 5th at 2:28PM EST (link)If the Whitehouse can refuse the courts rulings so can the coal industry. Shred what the DOJ gives them on TV and just keep on, “keeping on”. Make the EPA a joke against the American people which they certainly are. The same as the NLRB, Boeing should just tear up the lawsuit from the union and do what they want. The American people will back them.
Unfortunately
edintexas Friday, August 5th at 10:00AM EST (link)With a May, 2012 implementation date, what the Republican Presidential candidates promise will be too little, too late. Even if the Republicans keep the House, and take the White House and Senate, these rules will be in effect for almost a year before anything will be done about them.
The Republicans in Congress need to make a BIG issue of this NOW! Bring public pressure to bear on the Democrats to overturn these rules, and other “Green” regulations, and stop the EPA from continuing down this path. Without that, and soon, the effect on the economy will make yesterday’s 500 point drop in the Dow look good. Sadly, I have strong doubts that the Republicans have the cojones to take up the issue and win, Their PR efforts are the laughingstock of the western world. OK, maybe slight hyperbole there.
Is it about Race?
ontap Friday, August 5th at 12:01PM EST (link)Is the Obama administration deliberately handicapping industries that employ a small percentage of minorities? Is the goal to level the playing field by “un-employing” individuals whose academic prowess can be tied to attendance at either private schools or public schools from affluent communities? Is this an attempt to create a co-racial necessity for individuals to receive federal subsidies due to unemployment status? Why not expand the energy industry at all levels and promote an environment that encourages job retraining and substantive academic programs? The gainfully learned become the gainfully employed. The Obama administration is bent on correcting an unfounded premise that minorities have been given the short end at the expense of an industry that would improve their standard of living.
Hint....Hint; former Chairman Dick Armey
lastgopinillinois (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 10:12PM EST (link)The libs ran ads showing a Paul Ryan lookalike shoving granny in her wheelchair off a cliff.
I envision an ad showing an Obama lookalike taking a hammer to grannys air-conditioning unit
In the beginning, God created earth to be an extension of his vast Kingdom and his LOVE was so great that he wanted to share it with man, whom he created in his own image and likeness and gave him free will.
To this very principal, the Founding Fathers of our nation decreed that freedom is a God-given in-alienable right of all the people.
The economic suicide approach
carolina Thursday, August 4th at 10:14PM EST (link)These progressive greens are so insane…… that I should not have even read this. The stupidity of it all incenses me. Thanks a lot BO for lowering our standard of living. I look forward to ‘rewarding’ you with my vote for someone (anyone!) else in 2012. – spit -
Another Campaign Promise Of MAObama's Is Fulfilled! Get REady for "Final Destination 2012"
Ausonius (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 10:27PM EST (link)A little late, but The Man did promise that coal would be out and that we needed to pay more electricity.
Oil should be next, aided by the lack of drilling, E.P.A. rules, and the growing worthlessness of the dollar.
Time to start learning how to rub sticks together for basic energy! Oh no wait! Wood fires are very bad for global warming!
I imagine BIG BRObama is entertaining himself with the situation in the way creepy idiots are entertained watching people die in “Final Destination” movies.
Ausonius: 310-395 A.D. Teacher, Poet, Consul, General, Farmer.
Personal Tutor to the future St. Paulinus of Nola and to young Gratian, heir to the throne during the turbulent final years of the Western Roman Empire. When his former student Gratian was assassinated, Ausonius threw up his hands and retired to his farm in Gaul. Rome was captured by barbarians 14 years after his death.
Cato@rock.com
So long as it's the Red states being pummelled
civil truth (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 10:35PM EST (link)It’s win-win for the administration.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Exactly right civil and Great report Ben
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 10:50PM EST (link)Thx for keeping us informed.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Let's not forget the Blue States
Raven (Diary) Friday, August 5th at 10:27AM EST (link)That voted against him in the primary. Like West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
“If you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
Luke 22:36
Shut them down from midnight to 6 am.
Tbone (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 10:41PM EST (link)Forward the customer service number to the White House.
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
I really don't get...
traversecityconservative (Diary) Thursday, August 4th at 11:23PM EST (link)Why anyone listens to the EPA to begin with. I’ve never seen it listed in the Constitution. If it’s not an enumerated federal right or something your state voted on, why are these businesses listening to any of this? Don’t do it and get it to the Supreme Court.
The SCOTUS has a Precedent
edintexas Friday, August 5th at 10:07AM EST (link)The Federal Courts, and the SCOTUS in particular, have a precedent of usually deferring to Federal regulatory agencies unless the law and/or regulations are clearly unconstitutional. Claiming the agency is unconstitutional hasn’t worked yet and there is no reason to believe it will unless the makeup of the court changes significantly (like leaving Dear Leader’s 2 appointments as the only Lefties on the court).
If nothing else,
popster Friday, August 5th at 5:13AM EST (link)this is the single most important reason to dissolve this so called benefit to society called EPA, “which should stand for “Energy Policy of the Asinine”.
This President and his whole administration have such disregard for this Country and its Citizenry, they should all be prosecuted for crimes against the USA.
My Suggestion
tom6064 Friday, August 5th at 5:31AM EST (link)is that whoever or whatever is supplying the electricity to Washington, D. C. be shut off for a month and then see if Ms. Jackson still wants to implement her new regulations. If she does, cut it off for another month, the point needs to be made to this administration.
Someone ought to enforce the law on the EPA
ohiohistorian (Diary) Friday, August 5th at 6:12AM EST (link)When the EPA does a snow job such as they did on the cost-benefit analysis. Read here http://www.ntu.org/news-and-issues/energy-environment/macro_vs_wtp_v19-pdf3.pdf then there ought to be some push-back in the courts. They did not even assess that there would be deaths due to the shut-down of electrical capacity.
I hope the American people like rule by the Chicago mob.
““Liberals tend to put the onus of your success on society and conservatives on you and your family.”
—Dennis Prager
Well he said it, wasn't the people listening.
willhen50 Friday, August 5th at 6:59AM EST (link)He made statement after statement defining his socialist/marxist way of thinking, yet he is the first black…. Then people were telling Bush to quit 2 days after Obama’s win, so he could start “fixing” the problem. Thank you Bush for staying on until January, it prevented the inevetable for 3 months.
But, I think Obama is toast, because even his democratic base is trying to find another democrat to challenge Obama. Obama was supposedly elected to be a leader yet all he thinks he is a ruler, and he can tell us what to do.
And these idiots in the Administration wonder why
throwback59 Friday, August 5th at 9:11AM EST (link)unemployment is at 9.1%
Lisa Jackson is the one that needs to unemployed
izoneguy (Diary) Friday, August 5th at 9:27AM EST (link)Without her and the EPA – Employment would skyrocket.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Destruction is fun, Jackson's smile not a pose,
johnt Friday, August 5th at 10:13AM EST (link)she’s as happy as a pig in a pile of corn cobs. As are the rest of the top leftist escapee’s from the asylums. The LittleLefties will never know or care what hit them, even if chained to the walls of a modern Bastille they would know beyond doubt, as they age and starve, that it all rests on Bush.
Jackson’s policies fit in exactly with the program of degeneration and decline with The O and the rest of the pack, dedicated and fully comprehensive in it’s aim.
Von Mises in the 1920′s coined the term “destructionists” for the various socialist types of anti-human virus’s then scurrying around the feet of an already dying civilization. More true now than ever.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
when is enough enough?
a-b Friday, August 5th at 10:28AM EST (link)When will the States stand up to the FEDS and tell them …. “NO MORE! Your EPA can go pound sand! We are no longer going to abide by your rediculous regulations.” ………. ???
Get Perry In & Get the EPA Out
carolynr Friday, August 5th at 11:22AM EST (link)What these talking heads can’t figure out is this: the policies of this administration have made it impossible to make a profit and hire employees. Despite what I feel are bogus employment numbers out today…we are going down and unless we get someone with GUTS…we’re done…AND THAT DOES NOT MEAN ROMNEY WHO IS JUST OBAMA WITH A BETTER HAIR CUT
I would love to see the look on the faces
izoneguy (Diary) Friday, August 5th at 12:45PM EST (link)at all the EPA barackacrats when Perry hands them all pink slips. I guess they can all go to work for Al Gore.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Obama Turns Lights Out
eaglewingz Friday, August 5th at 3:36PM EST (link)The campaign commercial will have Obama lookalike sneering as he is before a huge power switch and turns it off. Heart patients, the elderly and children start to die. Another potential piece would be Obama lookalike smugly and arrogantly saying, about banning incandescent light bulbs, Let the little people use fluorescent lights, as he’s holding a hazmat; bulb. Then he accidentally drops the bulb where it smashes on the floor, and a ten member hazmat team rushes in to clean up the toxic waste. (And by toxic waste I’m not referring to Mr. Obama).
no electricity
barbaracvm Friday, August 5th at 5:36PM EST (link)Should the power companies not be allowed to have their coal supply — how will the black outs affect everyone? How many people will die because the AC will not be in used? Does this mean the families can sue the government for death of a loved one. Hospitals will not be able to run AC, only ‘must have’ surgeries will be available. Nurseries will loose new born babies to excessive heat. Grocery stores will loose their diary, meat, and other cool down foods.
Black outs cause a huge amount of danger, not just being uncomfortable.
No electricity – no computers, no blogs LOL. More family time – the family that sweats together, stinks together.