Obama is telling the good people of Ohio that he supports coal, while he rips the industry to shreds.
Over the next 18 months, the Environmental Protection Agency will finalize a flurry of new rules to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants. Mercury, smog, ozone, greenhouse gases, water intake, coal ash—it’s all getting regulated. And, not surprisingly, some lawmakers are grumbling.
Industry groups such the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, and the American Legislative Exchange Council have dubbed the coming rules “EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck.” The regulations, they say, will cost utilities up to $129 billion and force them to retire one-fifth of coal capacity. Given that coal provides 45 percent of the country’s power, that means higher electric bills, more blackouts and fewer jobs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.
Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year’s because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price.
These are not computer models or projections or estimates. These are the actual prices that electric distributors have agreed to pay for new capacity. The costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level.
House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) aptly explained: “The PJM auction forecasts a dim future where Americans will be paying more to keep the lights on. We are seeing more and more coal plants fall victim to EPA’s destructive regulatory agenda, and as a result, we are seeing more job losses and higher electricity prices.”
Obama’s war on coal hits your electric bill | Fox News
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/22/obamas-war-on-coal-hits-your-electric-bill/#ixzz23698SL75
What Obama is doing is quite smart actually. His team ran the numbers & a low turnout election favours him, so he’s filling the air with as much bullshit as possible, to turn the independent voters off of politics, in the hopes that they skip voting altogether.
A category 10 hurricane, coupled with an EF15 tornado, throw in a flood, two droughts and a blizzard and you still could not keep me away from the polls. I am an independent, and I can tell you that as long as I am able to take my next breath of air, I will be at the polls and I won’t be voting for Obama. I will even give everyone and anyone that wants to vote a ride to the polls with me. A thousand of those black panther morons won’t even be able to keep me out (would just be lot of black panther carnage for someone to cleanup).
If Obama the Commie isn’t gone in January, America will be.
Indeed. The GOP, though, needs to run as many Get Out the Vote campaigns as possible. Well, they should have been, starting last year, I mean.
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings.