Obama's War on Coal Moves Forward

Meanwhile, while the Obama administration cloaks Eric Holder in the invisibility shield, the Democrat controlled Senate defeated a Republican bill today aimed at blocking the runaway EPA in their latest salvo on the war on coal.

Via The Foundry:

Citing mercury pollution and air pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered businesses to install the “Maximum Achievable Control Technology” (MACT) to control emissions from their plants. Known as Utility MACT, this is no ordinary regulation. So stringent are the standards that potentially dozens of coal-fired power plants will close rather than incur the unsustainable costs of compliance. 

The EPA estimates the rule will cost $9.6 billion annually, to be paid by utilities and customers alike for new equipment, monitoring and reporting, loss of generating capacity, and higher electricity rates. Industry insiders consider the agency figures to be a lowball estimate.

And so while Obama has sent his forces out to insist that there is no war on coal in this administration, his EPA just blew us back to the dark ages:

Southern [Company} warned that it would bring “more power plant closures, spikes in electricity prices, job losses, and increased power outages.” Plants that can’t be upgraded in time must be taken offline in 2015. With less power available on the grid, electricity prices are forecast to spike by 11.5 percent nationwide in 2016, causinghundreds of thousands of job losses across the economy, according to National Economic Research Associates. 

Don't forget, he promised to do this.

The vote was 46-53:

Five Democrats — Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb of Virginia,Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — voted with Republicans. 

Five Republicans — Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — joined Democrats in voting the measure down.

Just in time for your summer cooling bills.