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One of the country's largest coal utilities will begin closing power plants next month in four states, as strict federal environmental regulations begin to kick in. The company, American Electric Power, made the announcement in a notice advising employees at the electricity stations that it plans to close six power plants in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, according to news reports. The company said it plans to shutter as much as 6,000 megawatts of power plant capacity in seven states by the start of 2016. The closures were planned as far back as 2011 to comply with new pollution...

A federal appeals court has agreed to hear arguments in a pair of cases challenging the Obama administration’s climate rule proposal for power plants. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Tuesday that it will hear oral arguments from the various sides in the cases on the morning of April 16. Twelve states, led by West Virginia, along with coal mining company Murray Energy Corp., filed separate lawsuits last year asking the court to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rule to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30 percent by 2030. In briefs...

The closure of Japan's nuclear power plants following the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami increased fossil fuel consumption and led to a wave of new coal plant construction. Japan plans to build 28 new coal-fired power generation units with total capacity of as much as 14,800 megawatts, due to come online in the next decade or so. Total = 28 units 13,801-14,801 megawatts. Individual plants and start dates excepted

“Lack of transparency was really critical to getting it passed,” former Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber explained. The Democrats cleverly exploited the American voters’ “lack of economic understanding.” Now President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is using secretive, duplicitous science, and exploiting people’s lack of scientific understanding, to impose punitive regulations cleverly labeled the “clean power plan.” The agency claims the clean power plan will prevent “dangerous manmade climate change” by reducing carbon dioxide and “encouraging” greater use of renewable energy. Its real goal is forcing coal-fired power plants to reduce operations significantly or shut down entirely. The EPA also claims that...

Six moderate Democratic senators are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give states more time to comply with its climate rule for power plants. The moderate Democrats said that states should be responsible for developing their own “glide paths” toward the 2030 goal. The senators signing the letter were Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.).

(CNSNews.com) – Power plants generating 72 gigawatts (GW) of electricity in 37 states have either closed or are scheduled to shut their doors to comply with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, according to the Institute for Energy Research (IER). The loss of generating capacity is “over seven times the amount originally predicted by EPA modeling,” IER’s updated report, released October 7, noted. “Originally, EPA calculated that only 9.5 GW of electrical generating capacity would close as a result of its MATS (Mercury and Air Toxics Standard) and CSAPR (Cross State Air Pollution Rule) rules,” the report stated. “Before President Obama’s...

EPA has proposed one of the largest, most expensive regulations in American history. These rules will impact our entire economy, hurt America’s diverse energy portfolio, and result in higher electricity prices while having little benefit to the environment. EPA is asking for public comment on this vast, regulatory overreach between now and December 1, 2014. We need you to share your views with EPA by sending the letter below, or using the open space to personally tell EPA how higher energy prices will impact you, your business, and your family.

Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) invites — no, Daines demands — Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency visit the town of Colstrip, Mont., to see for herself the impact of her agency’s Clean Power Plan on that community. So far, he has not received her RSVP. This time next year, he could have a lot more pull with the EPA. Daines could be forgiven if he is doing some early packing. He can’t be too worried about winning the November Senate election. Rasmussen Reports gives him an 18-point lead among Montana voters in his bid to replace Sen....

EPA chief Gina McCarthy issued a strong defense of controversial proposed new curbs on carbon emissions from power plants, telling a packed Senate hearing Wednesday the agency talked to all sides in the debate before issuing its draft recommendations. “This is the most respectful rule at the federal level that I have ever been involved in,” the Environmental Protection Agency administrator told the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, citing what she said was the flexibility given to the states to design their own plans to reduce carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030. But Republicans and many in...

On July 8 I received the Climate Science Whistleblower Award at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change sponsored by the Heartland Institute and other cosponsoring organizations held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The following are remarks I prepared for my acceptance statement:~~snip~~I wrote my negative comments on the Endangerment Finding support document because I believed EPA was using bad science ... But it is very encouraging to find that others agree with my decision to do so, which EPA clearly did not. My offending comments to EPA led to my being immediately muzzled at the same time that Obama was...

Over 1,000 energy firms were infected with a sophisticated cyber weapon that gave hackers access to power plant control systems, it has been revealed. … The software allows operators to monitor energy consumption in real time – and to cripple physical systems such as wind turbines, gas pipelines and power plants at the click of a mouse. … ‘Among the targets of Dragonfly were energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and energy industry industrial equipment providers,’ Symantec said. … ‘Dragonfly initially targeted defense and aviation companies in the US and Canada before shifting its focus mainly...

President Barack Obama kicked off a campaign to promote new restrictions on U.S. power plant emissions on Saturday by tying the fight against climate change with efforts to promote better health for children and the elderly. In his weekly radio address, Obama said the United States had to do more to reduce carbon emissions so that children suffering from asthma and other related ailments did not face further problems as a result of polluted air. Obama said the new guidelines would reduce smog and soot that threaten vulnerable populations such as the young and the aged and he said up...

(CNN) -- A key part of the Obama administration's green policies received surprisingly strong Supreme Court support on Tuesday over efforts to curb air pollution. A 6-2 majority of justices issued a decision upholding federal agency rules to control coal-fired power plant emissions from 28 states. Obama takes on coal industry It was a rare environmental victory in a conservative majority court that has in recent years generally sided against the federal government's nationwide clean air policies. The issue was complex -- whether an "upwind" state that is polluting a "downwind" state is free of any obligations under the so-called...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday revived an Environmental Protection Agency regulation that limited power-plant emissions blowing across state lines—a victory for the Obama administration. The court's 6-2 ruling breathes new life into a 2011 EPA regulation known as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which requires 28 states to reduce power-plant emissions that hurt the air-quality in states located downwind. The regulation stands to affect about 1,000 power plants in the eastern half of the U.S that may have to adopt new pollution controls or reduce operations. The court's decision in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, written by Justice Ruth...

SNIPPET: "A Reston man who federal officials said sold $250,000 worth of machinery parts from American manufacturers to Iranian companies pleaded guilty to felony charges in U.S. Federal Court in Alexandria on Thursday. Vahid Hosseini, 62, ran a business called Sabern Industries from his home in Reston, FBI officials said."

The Texas electric grid operator extended its call for residents and businesses to conserve power until Tuesday morning as a late arctic cold front that barreled as far as South Texas boosted the state's electricity consumption to a monthly record on Monday. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's primary grid, had issued a public call for conservation on Sunday evening, citing freezing temperatures that would strain available generation capacity. "With the continued cold weather, we expect conditions to remain tight, especially during the early evening tonight and early morning hours tomorrow," said Dan Woodfin, director of system...

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency. The case will determine how far EPA can extend its regulatory overreach, to control “climate changing” carbon dioxide from power plants and other facilities – by ignoring the Constitution’s “separation of powers” provisions, rewriting clear language in the Clean Air Act, and disregarding laws that require the agency to consider both the costs and benefits of its regulations and what it is regulating. Put more bluntly, the Court will decide whether EPA may deceive and defraud the American people, by implementing regulations that...

How’s your heating bill? If you feel like you’re not paying enough, you’re in luck. President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pushing new regulations on power plants—regulations that will kill jobs, jack up your energy costs, and even end up reducing families’ income because of the impact on the prices of everything you buy. As Heritage experts Nicolas Loris, Kevin Dayaratna, and David Kreutzer explain: These regulations will act as a major energy tax that would negatively impact American households. Americans will suffer through higher energy bills, but also through higher prices for goods and services, slowing the economy...

Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its proposal to impose carbon dioxide limits on power plants. Committee leaders sent a letter to EPA director Gina McCarthy on Friday, asking her to withdraw the proposed regulations, arguing that the agency is trying to "impose standards beyond the scope of its legal authority." In September, the EPA released a proposal to set emissions caps for new coal-fired power plants that would likely require the industry to use carbon-capture technology, which involves burying the carbon underground. Critics argue the technology, which...

Linking global warming to public health, disease and extreme weather, the Obama administration pressed ahead Friday with tough requirements to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, despite protests from industry and Republicans that it would dim coal's future. Under the law once the Environmental Protection Agency controls carbon at new plants, it will also control carbon at existing plants — a regulation the agency said Friday it would start work on immediately to meet a June 2014 deadline. The revised standards, the company said in a statement, "essentially eliminate coal as a future generation option."