Posted on 08/20/2011 10:11:43 PM PDT by Why_are_Democrats_stupid?
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. The doomsday scenario has alarmed Republicans in the House, who have been scrambling to block the measures. Environmental groups retort that the rules will bring sizeable public health benefits, and that industry groups have been exaggerating the costs of environmental regulations since they were first created.
So, who’s right? This month, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which conducts policy research for members of Congress, has been circulating a paper that tries to calmly sort through the shouting match. Thanks to The Hill’s Andrew Restuccia, it’s now available (PDF) for all to read. And the upshot is that CRS is awfully skeptical of the “train wreck” predictions.
First, the report agrees that the new rules will likely force the closure of many coal plants between now and 2017, although it’s difficult to know precisely how many. For green groups, that’s a feature, not a bug: Many of these will be the oldest and dirtiest plants around. About 110 gigawatts, or one-third of all coal capacity in the United States, came online between 1940 and 1969.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Oh, please, no. Then we'll have to suffer through fellow FReepers calling him a RINO every time he votes with the Dems. Better for everyone he remain a Democrat who occasionally votes conservative.
That way his fellow Democrats can brand him a DINO while we cheer him on.
Oh my gosh...how are we going to be able to charge the electric Cadillac!
“I think I will just stay here in Southeast Asia”
___________________________________________________
So will I.
I left the USSA for good in 2004.
No matter who gets elected, the country is finished.
It would take an act of God to turn it around, and I do not think he is very interested at this point.
Well blackouts worked great for Greyout Davis in California...bring it in on Bambi.
All these gyrations just to be able to shutdown the home computer and access to Free Republic.
I am warning you folks, this stuff is really no joke dangerous. Dangerous, not just an inconvenience. Recently here in Cleveland we have been slammed by the sewer and water company. Some of what they are going to bill us for my community won’t be paying...we have our own water treatment plant for drinking water. But that is a rarity in NEO. The sewer fee is going up because of EPA requirements. The Cleveland water rate is going up 87% in the city and 50% to the suburbs that get Cleveland water. These rate increases will not be based on consumption, but will be billed as a “fee” to the consumer. This is the second increase claimed to be going to dealing with the aging infrastructure(where’s those 0bamafunds?). Now...the excuse given by the water company? There is not enough usage, we’re conserving too much to support the infrastructure.
The same thing is going to happen with the electricity. We already know we have an aging electrical system since a squirrel in Ohio can chew a line on a summer day and shut down the whole Northeast USA. You will not be billed for consumption, but if you live in an area you will be pay fees and fines. Seriously start looking for ways to get off the grid.
When people start freezing to death in the winter and building real fires to heat their homes, they make regulations that we can’t have heat on certain days due to pollution. They do this in California already. Running a gasoline powered generator will be a no-no too.
People are going to die as these crazy regulations come on-line.
Basic economics doesn’t work where there is infrastructure to maintain. Short-term they market this stuff as saving consumers money etc., but long-term they will need usage to go up or the infrastructure will crumble.
Cleveland is learning the lesson now with regards to water usage. For years we were hounded to preserve our precious Great Lakes water. Low flow shower heads, toilets, washing machines all to preserve and conserve. And supposedly we’d have these benefits for years to come...
Not even a generation has passed since that mantra started and between the EPA regulations on the sewer and the Water Dept. crumbling infrastructure...the price of a shower has gone up 125%. And even if you are cutting back on personal consumption of these “products,” you are still going to pay for them as an add-on fee. There is no way around them.
One must differentiate between public and private infrastructure. Roads, bridges, water supplies, sewers and sewage treatment are traditionally publicly built and maintained. Most electric and gas utilities are privately owned and operated although heavily regulated and are known in economics as “natural monopolies”.
This is yet another synthetic shortage/price increase, like the petroleum one, done deliberately by the New World Order as part of their plan to destroy our culture.
What do they plan to replace it with? They haven’t thought that far ahead.
They call themselves “Progressives”! They even think they’re smart!!
Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns rolling blackouts
Make no mistake. Electric rates are going up, ..., a whole lot. But in many regions, there is not enough long distance transmission capacity to "import" power to cover the lost generating capacity from the coal plants that will be shut down. This will result in shortages, which in the electric power industry means blackouts.
Electricity is the only industry where supply must always equal demand (to a very high degree of precision). Transmission lines are expensive and take time to build. Power plants (of any kind) are expensive and take time to build.
These rules will shut down coal fired plants within months, not years. The shut downs will come before new transmission lines can be built, and long before new plants will be online to replace the coal fired plants. Supply will go down. That means demand will have to be shut off at peak demand time. That can only be accomplished with "rolling blackouts."
Wonder how much coal GE buys per year?.
>People are going to die as these crazy regulations come on-line.
Very possible. And if people must die, let’s make sure they are the ones doing the oppressing.
Wonder if any one in the “Journ-o-list” community will ask the 0 spokesmen explain the contradiction between the Present-ident’s rhetoric and his administration actions
These liberal/progressive idiots don’t get it. Our economic woes are based on two great issues: First, that we are SPENDING way too much and beyond our means. Second, it’s energy stupid! This administration has not only shackled our national energy businesses with draconian regulations but caused through many, any, and all means, the doubling in price of all energy. And it will worsen as time goes on
Here is another “what if...”
What if the coal fired power plants just refused to shut down? What if the people rose up to support this action?
[ What if the coal fired power plants just refused to shut down? What if the people rose up to support this action? ]
I have a better idea...
PAss laws in “a(your) State” that ALL money from that State to the federal government should pass though a “bank account” before going the federal government..
ALL money from any bank account to the federal government..
should TAXED.. a State tax on money earmarked for the federal government.. AND all federal government employees should have a pass port certified and licensed to work on Your State..
Then any employee could be deported... they being aliens to that State.. Also no State citizen could be employed by the federal government.. BECAUSE the federal government and the State are enemies.. at least opponents.. with cross purposes..
Because, also, its True... The federal government is a rogue government.. at odds with State purposes... The federal government has been and presently IS a parasite agianst State purposes.. A Vampire whose ONLY purpose is to bleed the State of resources.. not to add to the State purposes but to bleed the life from the STates economy..
Interesting concept. I have never heard this before. Something to think about.
Go ahead and get it. I got mine 5-7 years ago, and it has been a blessing. Automatically starts when the power goes off, and shuts down automatically when it comes back on. It tests itsself every Monday at 3:30 pm. Love it.
You are not getting the point.
These cost of these government regulations are going to be passed on to the consumers or services with stop.
Really, I am not seeing much difference here between the City of Cleveland Council approving a rate hike of 87% for water
or
the EPA’s heavy handed regulation. Which was imposed on the NorthEast Ohio Regional Sewer District(private entity).
You go ahead and think there will be ‘freedom of competition’ with utilities etc. I’ll go on living the reality of flawed system of economic philosophy with regard to utilities.
We need to have Republican activists at ALL these job fairs, handing out flyers that say:
HAD ENOUGH?
WANT A JOB? VOTE REPUBLICAN
I’m wondering, where are the republicans?
Why do they not fight? How can we hope to win ANY battles with weak knee republican leaders such as these?
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