Free Republic

Ever since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its Clean Power Plan proposal this past June, a number of analyses have been conducted to try and determine the total cost of the regulation to electricity consumers. A report released this morning by Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA), however, goes a step further. In addition to the Clean Power Plan, EPA has recently finalized, proposed, or will soon propose a slew of environmental regulations affecting the electric power sector. These include new National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) to...

The EPA is about to announce that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, something that has in many ways been inevitable since the boneheaded SCOTUS ruling in Mass. vs EPA (which essentially found that the Clean Air Act was always intended to be Kyoto-on-steroids.) With thanks to my colleague Will Yeatman, here's a brief summary of what this means, and why you should be appalled. Under the Clean Air Act, an “endangerment” finding means that the EPA will have to grant a waiver to those states (such as California) that want to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles. The EPA...

Clean little secret By William Fay If all things we normally associate with air pollution grow — a robust economy and more people and workers consuming more energy and driving more vehicles more miles — we should have more air pollution, right? Wrong. Government data since 1970 (the year the Clean Air Act amendment was enacted) clearly paints a portrait of a healthy and growing economy: 42 percent more people and 95 percent more workers using 43 percent more energy, driving 111 percent more vehicles 151 percent more miles and a 175 percent boost in real gross domestic product. And...