Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Environmental Protection (Or Propaganda?) Agency

If Federal Register notices, press releases and activist campaigns assured progress, the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rules for 84 power plant pollutants would usher in vastly improved environmental quality and human health. Unfortunately, the opposite is likelier. EPA's immediate target is older electrical generating units (EGUs), most of which have substantially reduced emissions to safe levels but still release more pollutants than modern plants. However, its broader agenda is to use air pollution and carbon dioxide restrictions to impose President Obama's goals of requiring "zero" emissions, "bankrupting" coal companies, causing electricity rates to "skyrocket" and effecting a "fundamental transformation" of the U.S. energy system and economy — regardless of what Congress may do or the American economy may require. This raises vital questions that thus far have received scant attention. How many older plants can be retrofitted to meet the new criteria? How many will simply be shuttered? Can coal, gas and nuclear replacements get the necessary permits, survive legal challenges and protests, and be built in time to replace the lost baseload electricity: potentially 2,290-3,950 megawatts in Illinois alone? Can intermittent wind and solar energy make a meaningful contribution or be built in time?...more

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