Some called it a gaffe when current Vice President Joe Biden was caught on video saying, “No Coal Plants Here in America,” during the 2008 campaign. Now, thanks to a bit of curious timing, the Obama administration may be a step closer to achieving that very thing, destroying up to 1.4 million jobs in the progress. The move will also lead to a significant increase in energy prices; however, it may be too late to do anything about all that by the time the information comes to light. And yet some think Wall Street, not Washington, is the problem.
Here’s the issue–one part of it, anyway. Connect the dots, beginning with this Federal Energy Regulatory Commission item.
FERC has scheduled a hearing next month to discuss the reliability of the power grid, particularly in regards to concerns stemming from new EPA regulations. Critics of the EPA have made reliability a central theme of their attack on new pollution regulations for power plants and pressed FERC to evaluate their concerns. The hearing is set for November 29.
That sounds good, until one realizes that the EPA intends to put some of said new regulations in effect, over the objections of many states, before their likely impact is discussed more broadly.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it was committed to finalizing a standard on mercury emissions by November 16 after 25 states urged a court to force the agency to delay the rule. “EPA is committed to completing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards — the first-ever national standards for mercury, arsenic and other toxic air pollution from power plants,” the EPA said in a release.
The issue may be best summed up in a letter from Senator Inhofe to the EPA. Add it up – fewer jobs, higher electric bills for the middle class and bigger government with more bad-for-business regulations. But it’s not even news, because everyone is focused on Wall Street. Wow! I wonder who thought that one up? Community organizers-in-chief work in mysterious ways, or so I’ve heard.
“Today in Congress there is bipartisan concern that the Obama EPA’s Utility MACT rule will result in a significant number of plant closures, increase electricity rates for every American, and, along with the transport rule, destroy nearly 1.4 million jobs,” Senator Inhofe said. “Now we have learned that EPA has failed to collaborate with FERC to consider how Utility MACT will affect electric reliability. In fact, FERC Commissioner Moeller went as far as to say that ‘the Commission has not acted or studied or provided assistance to any agency, including EPA.’
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