Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama Backs EPA War on Coal, While Networks Ignore Harm to Industry
Right Side News ^ | 6/17/2011 | Julia A Seymour

Posted on 06/17/2011 6:58:12 AM PDT by IbJensen

Major utility announces proposal to retire power plants, layoff workers and spend billions to comply with 'pending' regulations.

It is no longer a secret that President Obama's administration is willing to allow electricity prices to "necessarily skyrocket," in order to accomplish his green energy agenda.

Although he has so far been unsuccessful at instituting cap-and-trade, Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hard at work running coal companies and consumers into the ground. Not that you'd know it from ABC, NBC and CBS news coverage.

According to Paul Bedard's June 8 Washington Whispers column in US News & World Report, "two new EPA pollution regulations will slam the coal industry so hard that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, and electric rates will skyrocket 11 percent to over 23 percent, according to a new study based on government data."

The Hill reported that the EPA is attempting to "impose new regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants including mercury and arsenic."

American Electric Power (AEP) released its proposed compliance plan on June 9 for those "pending" EPA regulations. AEP, which is one of the largest U.S. utilities and delivers electricity to more than 5 million people, said that in order to comply with the new regulations they would need to retire 6,000 megawatts of coal-generated power in the next couple of years.

They would also have to shutter five plants (two in W.Va., two in Ohio and one in Va.) entirely and retrofit others, costing $6 billion to $8 billion. AEP also estimated a net loss of 600 power plant jobs, not including the ripple effect through the industry and affected communities. Higher energy prices are regressive and hurt the poorest the most.

Bloomberg reported on June 13, that if AEP is unable to pass on compliance costs due to state regulators, it may also have to sell Kentucky Power.

Yet, according to a Nexis search only three network news stories in 2011 have even mentioned coal and the EPA in the same story. One story mentioned the potential for the Senate to vote to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. But in the other two cases, the networks alluded to new EPA regulations, praised them and included representatives from the left-wing Sierra Club, while ignoring costs to industry and consumers.

Both of those stories were on ABC, one on "Good Morning America" and the other on "World News with Diane Sawyer." The "World News" story talked about the "terror" of coal ash and one town's "cry for help."

ABC's Jim Sciutto referenced one of the proposed EPA regulations March 29, 2011 saying, "Well, last year, the EPA proposed calling this [coal ash] hazardous waste. That would have required real safety measures, protective liners, water monitoring. But they stalled that rule. Now they're considering something much more lenient which would not even be federally enforceable."

"Good Morning America," alluded to another of the proposed EPA regulations - this one about mercury saying, "the EPA put out new protections about mercury because high levels of mercury" are dangerous. Sam Champion interviewed Mary Anne Hitt from the left-wing Sierra Club on March 17, 2011, who said, "All of us will be exposed to less mercury thanks to these new EPA protections, which are just a draft."

The networks couldn't muster a story, or even a word in either of those stories about the how the coal industry and the economy would be impacted by the EPA proposals. With more than half the nation's electricity currently fueled by coal, the impact will be huge especially in the nation's heartland.

The left may want to pretend that the billions of dollars companies would have to spend to comply with new regulations will simply come out of some rich guy's pockets, but the reality is that it will take away coal mining and plant jobs from people who have families to support and raise electricity rates for all consumers - many of whom are already struggling in a very difficult economy.

Julie Wern writing for the Chicago Tribune said that consumers in the 13 states serviced by the PJM Interconnection (which includes Illinois) could see their electric bills "jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years."

Wern correctly identified pending EPA regulations that will make coal plants more expensive to run (and shut some plants down) as the cause for the potential rate hikes.

AEP's own estimate for electricity price increases was 10 to 35 percent. Of course liberal environmentalists were thrilled by AEP's compliance plan. A Sierra Club spokeswoman (the same woman consulted by ABC), said "If AEP follows through with this plan then it will join a growing list of utilities … that have come to the same conclusion: coal has become an increasingly poor investment." She also blamed coal plants for "thousands of premature deaths, asthma attacks and heart attacks every year."

Struggling families, however, are likely to be much less excited by the White House's attempts to regulate coal plants out of existence while being forced to bear the burden of higher costs, fewer jobs and potentially less reliable energy.

Obama's Plan to 'Bankrupt' Coal Hits Hard in West Virginia

President Obama "threatened to bankrupt" the coal industry with cap-and-trade legislation. Now his EPA is making good on that threat through regulation.

In a January 2008 interview, Obama said: "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

The EPA has already taken other steps against the coal mining industry. In January 2011, the EPA took an unprecendented step by revoking a 4-year-old clean water permit from Arch Coal's Spruce Mine No. 1 located in West Virginia.

Investor's Business Daily (IBD) noted in a Jan. 19, 2011 editorial that Arch Coal "followed every jot and tittle of the rules it was to operate under." The company had also invested $250 million in that particular mine project.

According to IBD, this was all part of "Obama's War on Coal," and remarked that "it matters not even if you follow the rules" because the EPA's actions proved "rules can be changed on the fly."

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., expressed concerns following the EPA decision regarding Arch Coal, saying 'it just sends a very chilling effect upon any company that is currently negotiating, in good faith, with the EPA to obtain a permit for a worthwhile project.' His remarks were to MetroNewsTalkline in W.Va.

In April, Arch Coal sued the EPA for revoking that permit, according to the Charleston Gazette.

BMI Finds Networks Ignore Coal Industry Unless Disaster Strikes

In February 2011, the Business & Media Institute released an analysis of broadcast network news stories mentioning coal in reference to coal mining, energy from coal and the coal industry between Jan. 1, 2010 and Jan. 31, 2011. BMI found that 79.5 percent of those stories were focused on a mining accident or mine-related disaster.

The mainstream news media often given coal a bad name, literally, calling it the "dirtiest fuel on earth," "dangerous" and "polluting." Of course the primary reason for those attacks is that coal is a fossil fuel, which the media have long campaigned against in the name of global warming alarmism.

But what the networks rarely report is how necessary coal power is for the U.S., that it provides high paying jobs in rural areas, and that it has been getting safer. According to National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich the U.S. coal mining industry has cut fatal injuries by two-thirds in the past 18 years. It has also gotten cleaner; he said that since 1980 U.S. power plants have reduced "criteria pollutants" regulated by the Clean Air Act by more than 50 percent.

Despite that record, the network news media focused on the coal industry almost exclusively when a tragedy occurs, such as the April 2010 mine explosion that took 29 lives. While such disasters are worthy of attention, it is unfair of the networks to also ignore the necessity of the industry and the benefits coal brings to mining communities' economies and to the country as a whole by supplying a stable domestic source of energy production.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: aep; bhofascism; cleancoal; coal; crushepa; defundepa; democrats; energy; epa; evilregime; govtabuse; liberalfascism; obama; obamatruthfile; tyranny
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
As his administration strangles America, we find this ignorant, anti- American, Islamist believes the Statue of Liberty wasn't a gift of France, but was the result of donations made by Americans.

He can, however, spell potato.

Down with the Central Socialist Government!

1 posted on 06/17/2011 6:58:14 AM PDT by IbJensen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

O will be out of office in a year. Nothing will happen with this.


2 posted on 06/17/2011 7:00:47 AM PDT by edcoil (What? Me worry.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

The war is not on coal, per se,
it’s on energy production directly,
and ultimately it’s on the individual being able to use energy cheaply.


3 posted on 06/17/2011 7:03:08 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: edcoil

As soon as we get a Republican president in office they will take the EPA in hand as well as the FCC and the TSA.


4 posted on 06/17/2011 7:04:58 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: steelyourfaith

EPA/AGW ping?


5 posted on 06/17/2011 7:06:15 AM PDT by Amagi (ObamaCare proposed a tax on Tanning Salons. That is RACISM STRAIGHT UP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Georgia Girl 2
As soon as we get a Republican president in office they will take the EPA in hand as well as the FCC and the TSA.

CONSERVATIVE.

Not Republican.

If, for example, it was Mitt Romney, he'd double the size of the EPA, allow the FCC much more leeway, and insist that the TSA has the right to come into your home.

6 posted on 06/17/2011 7:07:58 AM PDT by Lazamataz (First we beat the Soviet Union. Then we became them. -- Lazamataz, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

Well, he is technically right in the sense that while the Statue was a gift from France, it came in pieces and Americans donated the money to actually put the thing up. Otherwise it just sat in a shipyard in pieces indefinitely.

But you are right on the money about him strangling America.


7 posted on 06/17/2011 7:10:26 AM PDT by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the chariot wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: edcoil

Im not so sure about that. He may or may not be gone, certainly NOT a given considering the GOP lineup. Companies don’t embark on such expensive journeys lightly unlike govt. Right now TVA is in process of doing the work to shut several coal fired plants. Lost capacity will be made up by new nuclear plants. That assumes tho the govt will license them. I think thats a poor assumption esp from the Barry Soetoro administration.


8 posted on 06/17/2011 7:12:52 AM PDT by 556x45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

It looks like an “Honor Killing” of the American people.


9 posted on 06/17/2011 7:13:39 AM PDT by mountainlion (A nation that forgets it's past has no future. WinstonChirchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

I can’t wait for the day when Obama suffers a humiliating defeat at the polls, followed by Congressional investigations, criminal indictments and a trial leading to his imprisonment for life in a SuperMax.


10 posted on 06/17/2011 7:16:30 AM PDT by thethirddegree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lazamataz

I stand corrected. I’m not planning on Mitt as the next POTUS. I was thinking more along the lines of Bachmann.


11 posted on 06/17/2011 7:21:47 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

Where’s Boehner?
Where are our wimpy candidates on this?

Crickets chirping.


12 posted on 06/17/2011 7:25:13 AM PDT by CincyRichieRich (Keep your head up and keep moving forward!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: edcoil

I remember when the ‘’exspurts’’ assured us that we would out of coal several years after the end of WW2. These queer baits just go on and on. Their junk propangda will leave people unable to buy cars or the gas to pump into them. How many jobs is that, 0’b?


13 posted on 06/17/2011 7:25:55 AM PDT by Waco (Nominate Palin or forget 2012 you lost)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Georgia Girl 2

Ya think?
I know our Republican takeover of the House has really improved things /s

Better check out Mittens, and Newt both of which SUPPORT this bullcrap.


14 posted on 06/17/2011 7:27:07 AM PDT by Outlaw Woman ("...; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,... "Hosea 4:6)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: edcoil
O will be out of office in a year.

A year from now would be before the 2012 elections. Do you know something we don't?

15 posted on 06/17/2011 7:34:26 AM PDT by savedbygrace (But God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

Just DEFUND THE EPA and get it off our back!!!


16 posted on 06/17/2011 7:47:36 AM PDT by UncommonJudge (Captions on for the hearing impaired.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MrB

This one is interesting. If I remember correctly, the city of Washington DC gets it’s power from a coal fired plant in Maryland. When the lights go out at the EPA, then what?


17 posted on 06/17/2011 7:53:25 AM PDT by Texas resident (Hunkered Down)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Texas resident

That’s another part of my assertion about the left.
They don’t ever see themselves as being subject to the consequences of their policies, because they’re “special” people.

The gov’t and its offices WILL have power, even if every other person in the country has to go without.


18 posted on 06/17/2011 8:01:14 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: thethirddegree

That is.... my most favorite fantasy.


19 posted on 06/17/2011 8:04:10 AM PDT by Gator113 ("GAME ON." I'll be voting for Sarah Palin, Liberty, our Constitution and American Exceptionalism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: MrB

That follows their pattern, but if AEP is supplying power to the city of the Party, and the Party forces AEP to shut down the plant, then what? Or will AEP get special dispenstation from the Party to continue to supply them power? That is pretty close to what chavez has done. Think I just answered my own question.


20 posted on 06/17/2011 8:11:00 AM PDT by Texas resident (Hunkered Down)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson