The EPA: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas From America and the Coal Industry

Last Wednesday, just days before Christmas, Carol Browner, Obama's radical Climate Czar, announced new EPA restrictions for mercury, arsenic, and other toxic substances being outputted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants. Compliance is required before 2014. Hailed as a victory by environmentalists, it is expected that it could mean the demise of nearly 60 existing coal-fired power plants with upwards of 22 million customers being affected; mostly in the already beaten up and declining cities and states in what is known as the Rust Belt. Some communities could see their power bills rise by as much as 30%. Most of the country may see rates go up by 10% as this nation's nearly 600 coal-fired power producing facilities are retrofitted with expensive new or modified smokestack "scrubbers" that will be needed to drastically reduce these types of emissions.

Of course, Obama and his EPA could care less about the impact on energy prices and the fact that thousands may lose their jobs in what is already a slow economy. Instead, they claim that their actions are all about saving lives and preventing illness. The "straw man" that they want us to believe in is that their new coal regulations will prevent illnesses like asthma and the effects of mercury and arsenic poisoning and any resulting deaths. Yes, it is true that the number of asthma cases in the U.S. has risen significantly over the years and The EPA would have you believe that those numbers can be reduced by the new regulations. But, in direct contradiction to this, our dependence on coal-fired power production has been steadily declining for two decades since a modified version of the Clean Air Act went into effect in 1990 to reduce acid rain emissions from any coal burning activities.

At one time, almost all electricity in this country was being produced from coal. Today, coal is only responsible for about 49% of this nation's electrical power. The reason is simple. It is too time consuming and costly to maintain any existing coal-fired power plants and to build new ones. For the existing base, the cost to keep up with ever-changing EPA rules and regulations is just too punitive. For any new power generating facilities, there are too many months needed to get EPA licensing. Then, if a power company does manage to get a "go-ahead" from the EPA, there's usually years of court battles with environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and/or Greenpeace. For most power companies, natural gas has become the clear choice over coal. It's easier to get licensing and it typically avoids lengthy environmental court action. More importantly, natural gas, through efficiencies and new finds, has become more competitively priced to what had been previously unbeatable coal prices.

So, with the power companies, themselves, already policing coal out of business, why this new ruling and why now? Why an unreasonable two year compliance mandate? I'm quite sure that the EPA didn't just, all of a sudden, connect the dots on the health risks of burning coal. And, if there truly is a deadly health risk, why did it take 3 years into the Obama Administration before the EPA decided to act on saving lives?

To me, the purpose, the timing, and the compliance requirements of this EPA ruling have "politics" written all over it. First of all, the new regulations conveniently appeal to Obama's environmental voting base in what is the beginning of an election year. Secondly, the decision comes just a little over 10 months away from the next Presidential election. As a consequence, the negative impact on jobs and energy prices are being held off, presumably, until Obama has been reelected. After all, if the EPA had implemented these new regulations in Obama's first year in office, higher electricity rates and job losses would have already been apparent; jeopardizing Obama's reelection bid. Also, the 2-year, forced compliance to the new emissions standard insures that there won't be enough time for the power industry to retrofit all of it's existing coal plants; forcing them to take many of those plants out of service. This also insures that the power industry won't have the needed time to replace those lost plants with any new and compliant facilities. Two years isn't enough time to get EPA approvals let alone have the needed 3 to 5 years to build a new power plant. Thus, brownouts can be expected. In turn, angry customers and public utility commissions will force the power companies to replace the lost power with expensive wind and solar facilities which you can expect to sail through the EPA approval process and, which, can be built in substantially less time than any brick-and-mortar, natural gas power plant.

Back in 2008, when a, then-Senator, Barack Obama was running for the presidency, he unabashedly said that it was his intent to "bankrupt" the coal industry and, in so doing, necessarily cause electricity prices to "skyrocket." That's why this EPA action is no surprise. The truly sad thing about this is that countless numbers of poorer Americans will suffer by forcing them to make "dire" choices between paying their energy bills or paying for their housing, food, clothing, and health care. All of this so Obama can get reelected by appealing to his own radical environmental political base.