Obama Coal Regulations to Boost Price of Electricity as Much as 60 Percent by 2014
COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama, while still a candidate, promised he would bankrupt the coal industry. According to the Chicago Tribune, it looks like this will be a rare promise that Obama will actually keep.
Unfortunately, it will mean sky-rocketing electricity prices for Americans, as much as 60 percent more by 2014.
The Obama administration intends to slap environmental regulations on coal fired plants that will make many of them impossible to operate. Even those coal plants that will continue to function will only do so at the expense of billions of dollars of upgrades, which of course will be passed along to the consumer.
Obama's plan to bankrupt the coal industry originally depended on cap and trade. Coal fired plants produce more than their share of so-called greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and would have been hit hardest in a cap and trade regime.
However since cap and trade has not been approved by the Congress, the Obama EPA, having taken upon itself the task of regulating the production of carbon dioxide, has decided to go about it with a will, thus furthering the president's goal of destroying the coal industry.
The effects on the price of electricity of the new regulations will be about the same as the effects on the price of gasoline of the administrations restrictions on oil drilling. The president possesses the charming idea that he can change the way the United States generates energy by government fiat. Unfortunately attempting to supplant the market place with central planning always results in economic dislocation that rarely affects the policy makers who institutes the plans to start with.
One suspects that the Congress will try to put a stop to this. Even the Democratic Senate may balk, seeing not only damage to Democratic represented coal states such as West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but electoral disaster in 2012.
If people decide that the only way to restrain a president's desire to destroy and entire industry and increase the price of electricity for their own good will be to replace that president with someone more reasonable, that impulse may be unstoppable. Obama has just handed yet another issue to the growing group of Republicans who want his job.
Unfortunately, it will mean sky-rocketing electricity prices for Americans, as much as 60 percent more by 2014.
The Obama administration intends to slap environmental regulations on coal fired plants that will make many of them impossible to operate. Even those coal plants that will continue to function will only do so at the expense of billions of dollars of upgrades, which of course will be passed along to the consumer.
Obama's plan to bankrupt the coal industry originally depended on cap and trade. Coal fired plants produce more than their share of so-called greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and would have been hit hardest in a cap and trade regime.
However since cap and trade has not been approved by the Congress, the Obama EPA, having taken upon itself the task of regulating the production of carbon dioxide, has decided to go about it with a will, thus furthering the president's goal of destroying the coal industry.
The effects on the price of electricity of the new regulations will be about the same as the effects on the price of gasoline of the administrations restrictions on oil drilling. The president possesses the charming idea that he can change the way the United States generates energy by government fiat. Unfortunately attempting to supplant the market place with central planning always results in economic dislocation that rarely affects the policy makers who institutes the plans to start with.
One suspects that the Congress will try to put a stop to this. Even the Democratic Senate may balk, seeing not only damage to Democratic represented coal states such as West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but electoral disaster in 2012.
If people decide that the only way to restrain a president's desire to destroy and entire industry and increase the price of electricity for their own good will be to replace that president with someone more reasonable, that impulse may be unstoppable. Obama has just handed yet another issue to the growing group of Republicans who want his job.
Published by Mark Whittington
Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile
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