By Nancy Thorner -
Part 1: EPA coal regulations advance government policies in name of man-made global warming/Heartland leads fight against 'warmists'
I have heard said a number of times by those who claim to be in the know about predicting election outcomes, that the November elections will be fought and won over the economy, jobs, with energy taking 3rd place.
Energy really deserves the number one spot, for energy is what drives the economy of this nation. With this nation's factories and industries humming along people are employed. With employment the American people have money to spend, which, in turn, fosters economic growth.
With the EPA under Lisa Jackson publicly declaring CO2 a dangerous pollutant on Dec. 7, 2009, after the elected Members of Congress were unable to pass cap and trade legislation, the EPA was able to move in with massively complex and costly regulations that would micromanage just about every aspect of the economy. CO2, exhaled by humans and which plants need to thrive, along with five other greenhouse gases (GHGs), were named as pollutants which adversely affect public health and the environment.
At the time the Heritage Foundation gave a full analysis on how EPA regulations would hijack the economy.
Though the EPA's false declaration of CO2 as a pollutant in 2009, the issue of global warming could rightly be pushed upon the American people as something they should care about, and which they could likewise do something about, by reducing their carbon footprint when going about their daily lives.
A year later, on May 13, 2010, Lisa Jackson's EPA went one step further by issuing rules to curb carbon pollution from big power plants and other big polluters under the landmark 2007 decision by the Supreme Court that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases were air pollutants subject to control under the Clean Air Act.
Now fast forward to March 27th of this year when the EPA proposed carbon dioxide restrictions which James Taylor, managing editor of Environment &Climate News and a senior fellow with the Heartland institute wrote "will effectively ban the construction of coal-fired power plants. The proposed restrictions would block the construction of any new power plant that does not limit its carbon dioxide emissions to 1,000 pounds per megawatt-hour. Coal-fired power plants emit approximately 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt -hour."
Why should Illinoisans care?
Abundant Illinois coal and the relatively cheap and convenient energy it produced fueled the growth and and operations of the Chicago and St. Louis metropolitan areas beginning in the nineteenth century.
According to a report by Fox News, the proposed EPA rule could force a fourth of all coal plants to close in this nation. Generations of coal miners have toiled away in obscure, blue-collar towns across Appalachia. Now as many as 200,000 of them who dig, process, and transport America's most abundant fuel are threatened to lose their jobs.
Tribune reporter Julie Wernau had this to say in an article published on Tuesday, May 17: "Residential electricity prices are expected to spike by more than 10 percent beginning in 2015, with consumers paying between $150 and $330 a year more than this year, as coal plants, the least expensive producers of electricity, continue to close."
According to Wernau's article, "Midwest Generation's Fisk and Crawford coal plants in Chicago are slated to close by September, and Ameren Illinois has threatened to close its coal plants if it doesn't receive an extension to clean them up."
The proposed standards of emissions are all but impossible for many older plants to meet. Installing what is known as carbon capture and storage technology to meet the mandated EPA standard are costly for plant owners.
Because a "consensus" exists at the federal government level and at the state level here in Illinois that fossil fuels (oil and coal) are spewing forth CO2 emissions and causing global warming with catastrophic future results, coupled with the foolish idea that man can manipulate Mother Earth when periodic cycles of warming and cooling have been taking place for hundreds of thousands of years ages at regular intervals before oil and coal were energy producers, green energy (wind and solar) are being advanced as saviors of Mother Earth and as viable replacements for oil and coal.
