Obama Set To Kill The Coal Industry And West Virginia In The Process

Quietly last week, amidst all the coverage of the Supreme Court and its health care review, Obama's EPA issued new limits for CO2 production by coal-fired power plants. Under the new regulation, no new plant can be built unless it can limit its CO2 output to less than 1,000 pounds per megawatt of power produced. Of course, this is a completely impossible number to achieve. Even the cleanest of coal-fired power plants in operation today will generate 4 times that amount of CO2. So, effectively, there will never be another coal plant built in America. Something Obama and Democrats like Al Gore have wanted for years.

But, don't think that this will be the end to Obama's attack on coal power. It is expected that, after the election, his EPA will impose similar harsh standards on existing coal plants; forcing them to either shutdown or pay excessive daily fines. In doing so, 42% of our nation's power production will effectively have to be replaced. Electricity rates will skyrocket and all of America will suffer, with the poor and the fixed-income retirees being hurt the most. For some states, the anticipated EPA ruling will be particularly harsh. West Virginia is not only 97% dependent on coal for its electricity but, also, has 30,000 of its workers directly employed by the industry. Also, coal accounts for 60% of the business tax revenues in the state. To put it simply, the killing of the coal industry will literally bankrupt West Virginia. All this in the name of fighting the global warming bogeyman; and, all this without any Congressional say so or approval.

The West Virginia statistics come from this link: http://www.wvminesafety.org/wvcoalfacts.htm