Whether you are all right with the notion and perversion of this administration's policy of cap and trade or not, does not matter in the big scheme of plans and politics.
There is plenty of blame to go around when looks at the past administration and the current one. Obama made it clear he dd not care if energy prices went way up, how many jobs this cost the country, the damages from all these jobs losses, as he and his ilk are completely out of touch with what the average is suffering or is going to suffer through. Gasoline is still at almost $4.00 a gallon and not dropping much at all and now the cost of everything is really going up. This administration wants the country to get 'used to higher prices' for EVERYTHING. Keep it that way long enough and it becomes the new normal. Tell a lie often enough and people start to believe it. This is exactly what the mullah in the White House has wanted to do and now he is accomplishing this.
With AEP announcing that they plan to close these five coal fired plants, at least 600 jobs will be lost and that is NOT counting the secondary jobs that will be lost after these plants close. What power source is going to replace them? Natural gas? To a point, yes but this administration has already started going after that industry as well. Think 'green' energy can fill this void and others that will show up once more of this starts happening? Guess again, people. This will now just set the stage for exporting even more of one of the main natural resources that we SHOULD be using a lot more of to curtail our oil addiction. Obama set out to KILL the oil and coal industry and he is keeping this one promise. In obama's utopia, everyone will be wearing the same gray clothes, riding the same bicycles to our government supported jobs, living in the same dwellings, letting big brother provide for all our 'needs.' He wants to kill any and all possibility of this country using our own natural resources for our own energy production. At the same time he wants to bankroll offshore oil drilling for Venezuela and he is pledging billions of dollars in aid to our enemies like pakistan, afghanistan, egypt, libya and more. On top of all this the USA now commits about 40% of its corn production to the useless production of ethanol. Think about that, 40%. How much food could be produced with all that corn.
According to obama he is just fine with this: "Just remember, “under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” (you can find the full quote here at Newsbusters). That is not all that is skyrocketing. Everything is now costing more and the worst, much worse is yet to come.
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| AEP coal plant New Haven, Ct. |
Utility giant AEP says it will close five coal plants to comply with EPA regs
By Andrew Restuccia
Utility giant American Electric Power said Thursday that it will shut down five coal-fired power plants and spend billions of dollars to comply with a series of pending Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
The company’s dramatic plan to comply with the regulations could give Republicans and moderate Democrats ammunition in their ongoing fight against EPA's efforts to impose new regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants including mercury and arsenic.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) immediately pounced on AEP's announcement.
“This is a perfect example of the EPA implementing rules and regulations without considering the devastating impact they may have on local economies and jobs,” Capito said.
Capito said she will write a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asking whether the agency took into account the economic impact of its regulations.
"Let me be clear, it’s decisions like the one made by AEP today that demonstrate the urgent need to rein in government agencies like the EPA, preventing them from overstepping their bounds and imposing regulations that not only cost us good American jobs, but hurt our economy," said Manchin, an outspoken critic of the EPA.
But EPA defended its regulations Thursday, noting that the agency has worked closely with industry to ensure that its regulations are “reasonable, common-sense and achievable.”
The agency also stressed that the regulations are essential for protecting public health.
“These reasonable steps taken under the Clean Air Act will reduce harmful air pollution, including mercury, arsenic and other toxic pollution, and as a result protect our families, particularly children,” EPA said in a statement.
In a statement outlining its plan to comply with EPA's regulations, AEP said it would need to retire 6,000 megawatts of coal-fired power generation in the coming years.
The company, one of the country’s largest electric utilities, estimated that it will cost between $6 billion and $8 billion in capital investments over the next decade to comply with the regulations in their current form.
The costs of complying with the regulations will result in an increase in electricity prices of 10 to 35 percent and cost 600 jobs, AEP said.
In total, AEP estimated it will have to close five coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014. Six additional plants would see major changes, including retiring some generating units, retrofitting equipment and switching to natural gas.
“We support regulations that achieve long-term environmental benefits while protecting customers, the economy and the reliability of the electric grid, but the cumulative impacts of the EPA’s current regulatory path have been vastly underestimated, particularly in Midwest states dependent on coal to fuel their economies,” AEP CEO Michael Morris said in a statement.
The company said its compliance plan could “change significantly” if EPA’s regulations are altered.
Hat tip: Pirate's Cove.
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