Posted on 04/06/2015 3:55:23 PM PDT by Nachum
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 regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, called the Mercury and Toxics Standard, that go into effect later this month.
The initial six power plants will close beginning May 31. The plants include the Philip Sporn, Kammer and Kanawha Valley power stations in West Virginia, the Muskingum River Plant in Ohio, the Tanners Creek Plant in Indiana and the Glen Lyn Plant in Virginia. The closures would affect 250 workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I think that we have passed the point of no return. soetoro and the demon rats are destroying the Republic, importing millions of illegals and mohammaden “refugees, spending us into bankruptcy, ignoring the Constitution, aiding our enemies and the GOPe doesn’t seem interested in stopping them.
Use their courts to hamstring them. Find a judge to grant a restraining order forcing them to keep them open, due to the massive economic harm and destruction to personal assets. It is a class action which should require the Obama misadministration to provide response and justification, and failing that to have all the the BS rescinded.
They closed Hatfield and Mitchell in my rural county last year. At least 2 coal mines are closing as a result. Couple thousand jobs .
“The GOP backed the cap and trade.”
______
The Reagan administration pioneered cap and trade as a means of fighting the release of sulfur compounds that were causing acid rain and straining our relationship with Canada who was bearing the brunt of the pollution, though not causing it. At the time, the left howled, because it gave rich corporations way of “buying out of their resposnibilities, but it was actually a stroke of genius that used market forces to reduce pollution. When executed by a government that has sincere motives, it’s actually a pretty conservative answer to the problem.
But the reality is, the left does not have a victory here. natural gas is replacing coal,and it’s the result of fracking- another pet peeve of the left.
Something to think about
I know the answer, and I'll let you know. But its complicated.
First off, anything that has to do with pollution and/or epa gets litigated and sometimes the litigation takes a long time because the lawsuits ping pong back and forth. This case has been going on since 1990, 25 years. So what happened under Clinton, Bush, and Obama. And what will ultimately happen
Here are two links covering the history.
Timeline of Mercury and Air Toxics This is from Enviro Defense Fund
EPA rule on power plant emissions faces formidable hurdle in Supreme Court LA Times
Both sources say SCOTUS will hear the case on Mar 25, 2015. And SCOTUS did hear the case, and will rule on it soon. No later than June. Maybe sooner?
Its a complicated argument dealing with the cost and the cost benefit analysis.
The plamtiffs(coal, power, and GOP states) say the cost is to high. EPA says the cost is not known and won't be known until they write the final rule and that is the way they have always done it, because Congress has never told them otherwise. EPA writes the regs, then the states submit their plans based on the regs, then EPA writes the final rule determining emissions standards based on the cost benefit analysis.
Second, EPA says the plantiffs are off because there are not just benefits from lowering mercury emissions but also benefits from lowering the other toxics, such as arsenic.
I agree except nuclear power isn’t currently profitable due to all the safety/security considerations so no private company would do it without subsidies. However, it may become profitable after the forced shutdown of coal.
So either way we will end up paying more for power due to government regs.
Personally I don’t think the nukes are safe enough from attack. There are modern designs I would trust to not meltdown but cost then goes through the roof. Coal is very clean with all the filtering technology and still profitable. It’s the best option so of course Obama put a stake through it...
More coal mine layoffs were announced last week in WV.
Huh?
Again, the people are getting what they voted for.
Bears repeating, twice, same number of times they voted for him.
Fewer jobs
Less power
More stress on existing infrastructure
Higher rates soon to follow
Gosh, what’s not to like here?
Glad I bailed out of AEP when I did!
Like Mark Levin said, on his show tonight....first they’ll restrict water, due to “shortages”, next it’ll be electricity that gets restricted. He argued how obvious it is that this will be their next step, with the shutting down of the coal plants.
No, it is not killing coal but it is replacing coal as a generating power even though it is more expensive than coal.
Coal is the cheapest fuel for generating power, even cheaper than nuclear.
The libs, greens, etal absolutely hate coal and will kill every coal plant in the country if we let them. Looks like they are well on their way too. I really don’t know if any coal plant at all will survive the EPA greenie weenies.
And when that happens, get ready for your electricity bill to almost if not double.
Might want to send a note of congratulations to His Arrogance’s step-n-fetch-it boy Slow Joe Manchin .... what ever the boss say he do!
Didn’t all four of these States (VA, WV, OH and IN) go for Obama in ‘08; knowing that he was an enemy of the coal industry? I know that VA, OH and IN went for Obama; not sure about WV. Well, folks, you reap what you sow. No sympathy here.
way bigger. oil is next. gas will last a while. thne dirty gas.
electricity rationing
A miniscule amount of our electricity is generated by oil.
The natural gas angle kinda pizzes me off in that everybody thinks we got a couple hundred years of the stuff but that was at usage rates of last decade. These gas power plants use enough gas for a city under normal usage so we will end up with outrageous heating bills.
It was nice last winter when my highest gas bill to heat this old house was only 72 bucks and we had a colder than normal winter here in w. texas.
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