Posted on 12/30/2011 2:55:22 PM PST by MichCapCon
Enjoy this seasons Christmas lights; next Christmas it will be considerably more expensive to run the lights that adorn Christmas trees, homes and businesses in many areas around the country, including Michigan.
Most American households would have preferred a lump of coal in their stocking from the Environmental Protection Agency rather than the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule issued by the agency today. The rule is aimed at coal-fired power plants, mandating among other things a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions. This may be the most expensive regulation on utilities issued by the EPA to date, estimated to cost utilities around 11 billion dollars per year.
Utility companies around the country are already reacting to the EPA's Christmas present by announcing the shuttering of 72 power plants around the country, including several in Michigan, as well as filing for rate increases running into the double digits.
No, Virginia, wind power will not replace coal in the generation of electricity as it is too expensive and unreliable. Natural gas is far more likely to replace the lost coal-fired plants. Fortunately, natural gas prices are currently low, but it bears a recent history of large fluctuations in price.
Natural gas is also the preferred heating fuel for homes in most areas of the U.S. However, utilizing it will require vast quantities of the fuel, which is likely to have an escalating effect on future prices.
Perhaps in the end the Grinch could not steal Christmas, but the EPA is trying its best.
More jobs lost, higher electric bills, less food on the table and the EPA is just getting started. I expect to see the economy worsen in 2012 between healthcare and the EPA.
The EPA needs to be erased from our government.
Unfunded - shutdown.
The next republican president could effectively do it with the stroke of a pen by simply firing all of the employees and not paying their utility bills. That’s how easy it is. If they say otherwise, they don’t really mean it when they speak against the EPA.
My electricity already costs me more than 3 times what it did 10 years ago.
Economic Treason
................................
Since Dec 21, 2003
Must be the FReeping. : )
The EPA is on Perry’s list of the big three government agencies to shut down.
If whoever becomes the next president does not deal with the EPA, then they are not worth much. We need to reduce them to a crew of about 5 people.
Nope. That could possibly make sense, and we can’t have any of that. Screw people, the earth must be saved!
In other words,
NO mercury (not the slightest bit) allowed to produce electricity but...
....bulbs filled with mercury to burn in each home.
The first effect of not believing in God, is that you lose your common sense. ...GK Chesterton
There was a time when I thought that this agency could be rolled back to its functions in the 80’s, but now I think it needs to be completely eliminated, all it’s employees fired (and barred from reapplying), and restarted with the limited mission that it was designed to do.
By now, probably everyone down to the bathroom attendants there are wackos.
If only an intelligent person like yourself was in charge miracles would happen.
Used to live in Michigan and with the exception of Detroit, I loved it. I wish they would drill there. It was a family friendly state for the most part and I would hate to see it go the way of California.
When people start throwing away the “new” mercury contaminated squiggly light bulbs. I wonder if the mercury released by millions of bulbs will equal the coal plants.
20 years down the road the government will be seeking billions in cleanup funds from all the mercury in the landfills.
OH, no doubt about that!
They’re aiming for a 90% reduction in mercury at coal burning plants? What about the new light bulbs??? I believe that’s the next move by the EPA: once all the incandescent lights are used up, they will strictly limit the use of the new bulbs because of their mercury content. They want us sitting in the dark, folks! They want us using 15th century wind technology and no electric lights or electricity! Except for them - because they are an integral part of society. Let’s take back our country before it’s too late.
Change...bah, humbug!
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