How To Kill An Economy While Claiming To Save The Planet

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday U. S. News reported at its Washington Whispers Blog that two new 'pending' regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency will have a major negative impact on the coal industry.  The new regulations are designed to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants.  Americans get about 54 percent of their electricity from coal, so any regulation that impacts coal-fired power plants is going to impact the cost of electricity. 

If the 'pending' regulations are passed, electric rates for Americans are expected to rise between 11 and 23 percent.  There are also predictions that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost. 

The article reports:

"Overall, the rules aimed at making the air cleaner could cost the coal-fired power plant industry $180 billion, warns a trade group."

The one thing I had trouble finding when I researched this article was exactly what change would result from the 'pending' regulations.  First of all, I don't believe in the concept of 'pending' regulations.  The government doesn't do 'pending'--it just does.   Americans are used to having available, reasonably-priced electricity.  If we are being asked to give this up (along with employment losses of over 1.4 million jobs by 2020), I want to be sure that the regulations would make a significant difference in air quality, and that the end result would be worth the sacrifice.

Meanwhile, I am not sure that implementing any regulation that increases the economic burden of Americans and causes jobs to be lost is a good idea at this time.  Unless there are overwhelming problems caused by the current regulations on coal-fired electric power plants, I think this might not be the time to change the rules.

0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: How To Kill An Economy While Claiming To Save The Planet.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.rightwinggranny.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3081

Leave a comment

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Granny G published on June 9, 2011 10:44 AM.

Obamacare's Last Stop Before The Supreme Court was the previous entry in this blog.

There Is Always Another Side Of The Story is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.