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.

Coming Up: Rolling Blackouts

Drudge is all afire over the coming rolling blackouts that will likely happen as a result of Obama's pledge to bankrupt the coal fired power plants.

Man, he said out loud what he was going to do and people voted for him anyway.  Nobody that voted for Obama has the right to utter one single solitary complaint when their electricity cuts off for several hours.  When it's 108 outside and it's your turn for your power shut down, just sit there and chant "Yes, we can...." over and over.  Hope 'n change, baby.

Funny.  Wikipedia defines "rolling blackouts" this way:

Rolling blackouts are a common or even a normal daily event in many developing countries where electricity generation capacity is underfunded or infrastructure is poorly managed. Rolling blackouts in developed countries are rare because demand is accurately forecasted, adequate infrastructure investment is scheduled and networks are well managed; such events are considered an unacceptable failure to plan and can cause significant political damage to responsible governments. In well managed under-capacity systems blackouts are scheduled in advance and advertised to allow people to work around them but in most cases they happen without warning, typically whenever the transmission frequency falls below the 'safe' limit. Due to the shortage of electricity, load shedding is extremely common in India.

We are now a "developing country."

And when you do have power it will cost you more.

The state of Texas is not a bit happy about the impending blackouts (emphasis mine):

The critical importance of electric generation adequacy was brought home as the Texas PUC was finalizing these comments. On August 2 and 3, 2011, temperatures across most of Texas ranged from 105 to 111 degrees. Because of the unseasonably hot weather, the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) region of Texas set a new peak demand record of 68,294 MW, blowing through the 2010 record of 65,776 MW. Although ERCOT avoided the need for rolling outages because of its current electric reserves, the ERCOT grid operated very close to its capacity. It is clear that, had the EPA rules discussed in these comments been in effect, Texans would have experienced rolling outages and the risk of massive load curtailment. Our modern economy depends upon a reliable source of electricity, and outages, rolling or otherwise, cost Texans millions of dollars.

How are the elderly and infirm supposed to deal with rolling blackouts in 110 degree heat?

Hell, we had a transformer blow up in one of our suburbs recently and the repair time was initially estimated at 12 hours.  People began freaking out and demanding the the city open "cooling centers" and that they be allowed to take their pets along.

Ezra Klein links to a report which says this is all much ado about nothing.  Yes, he says, many coal power plants will shut down, but hey, they were archaic anyway!  No big deal!

The Congressional Research Service concedes that retrofitting these plants will be expensive and your energy bills will be higher but you'll benefit in the end with robust good health!

We are now living in a nanny-state third world country.  Stock up on generators and batteries.

Power Grids are Strained, Coal Plants Looking at Closure, Energy Costs to Soar, and Obama Wants Four More Years

Just because cap and trade never made it out of the Senate is no reason to think that Obama would drop his plans to bankrupt the coal industry and continue to push us toward green energy sources that don't yet exist.  We've got cap and trade by fiat now through the EPA.

The EPA came out a couple of weeks ago with the new guidelines and standards for coal fired power plants. 

As I noted at the time, Texas immediately recognized this for the problem that it is:

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, though, believes the rules "will result in significant increases in the cost of power as well as curtailment or shutdowns of existing coal-fired plants in Texas."   It said other sources of electricity will not compensate for that, especially given the January compliance date.

Jazz Shaw, writing at Hot Air, followed up on this with a post yesterday:

When these rules go into effect, a significant number of coal plants are either going to shut down – long term or permanently – and/or have to raise their utility rates dramatically to pay for these renovations which were sprung on them with virtually no notice. Other options include importing more electricity from out of state, but that again drives up costs and puts additional strain on the delivery infrastructure.

The mind jumps at first to all the jobs that will be "unexpectedly" lost when this all kicks in.  And then, if you live in Texas, you have to think about the exorbitant energy costs headed your way.

And what to make of the current heat wave?  Power grids are already strained across the country.  As Tina noted in the comments at my original post, Texas has its own power grid.  But, these new EPA rules, (i.e.: Cap and Trade by fiat) will strain that immeasurably.  Jazz Shaw points to this statement by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) (emphasis is mine):

ERCOT’s May11 report to the Public Utility Commission on the impact of the proposed environmental regulations did not address the impact of SO2 restrictions on coal plants in ERCOT because these restrictions on Texas were not included as part of the EPA’s earlier rule proposal.  We have not had time to fully analyze the entire 1,323-page Cross-State Rule released July 7 or to communicate with the generation owners regarding what their intentions will be.  However, initial implications are that the SO2 requirements for Texas added at the last stage of the rule development will have a significant impact on coal generation, which provided 40 percent of the electricity consumed in ERCOT in 2010.

In other words, these regulations were not something Texas saw coming and nobody has had time to prepare for them.  These regulations take effect early next year:

Our concern is that the timing of the new requirements – effective Jan. 1, 2012 – is unreasonable because it does not allow enough time to implement operational responses to ensure reliability.  We fear that many of the coal plants in ERCOT will be forced to limit or shut down operations in order to maintain compliance with the new rule, possibly leading to inadequate operating reserve margins with insufficient time to reliably retrofit existing generation or build new, replacement generation.  

What are people in Texas supposed to do?  Install windmills?  Solar panels? 

Texas Governor Rick Perry issued the following statement following the announcement of the new EPA regulations on July 7:

Today's EPA announcement is another example of heavy-handed and misguided action from Washington, D.C., that threatens Texas jobs and families and puts at risk the reliable and affordable electricity our state needs to succeed. From the attack on Texas' successful clean air program, to threatening endangered species listings in West Texas oil fields, to banning offshore energy exploration, the Obama Administration seems intent on increasing energy costs for American consumers and making us even more dependent on foreign energy.

It does indeed seem as if the Obama Administration is trying to raise energy costs, not just in Texas, but on all Americans.  In Louisiana there are still many people suffering through the permitorium and are unable to work or have lost their small business due to team Obama's refusal to grant drilling permits in the Gulf.

Four more years of this administration will kill America.  Period.  We can not stand four more years.  As it is, it will take the next decade or more to get us out of the mess we're in.  Four more years of Obama and we might as well turn out the lights.

If there are any left.

Obama Keeps Promise to Bankrupt Coal Power Plants

"If somebody wants to build a coal power plant, they can.  It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

That was Barack Obama in 2008.

Today, the E.P.A. has issued new guidelines and standards for coal fired plants effective in in early 2012.

Texas is not happy:

Texas argues that the new rules would require massive improvements to old power plants, changes that would end up costing consumers more money. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's regulatory agency, also questions the science upon which the EPA has built its rules.

"Technically speaking, this rule is another example of EPA fabricating a scenario in order to justify its actions," TCEQ Chairman Bryan Shaw said on June 30 when he testified before Congress about this and other federal rules.

"This rule ... puts at risk the economic future of power generation and those dependent on affordable electricity in Texas," Shaw added, saying the expensive improvements he believes would be needed would hurt elderly and low-income residents whose "health and welfare" depend on reliable energy.

Texas has 19 coal fired plants.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity explains the problem, via the New York Times:

“The E.P.A. is ignoring the cumulative economic damage new regulations will cause,” said Steve Miller, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a group of coal-burning utilities. “America’s coal-fueled electric industry has been doing its part for the environment and the economy, but our industry needs adequate time to install clean coal technologies to comply with new regulations. Unfortunately, E.P.A. doesn’t seem to care.”

An industry-financed study found that new air pollution rules would cost tens of thousands of jobs and raise electricity rates by more than 20 percent in some parts of the country. 

I am hard pressed to recall a more jobs-killing-administration than this one.