Obama's new EPA rules would destroy our energy sector

By Warner Todd Huston

Half of America's energy comes from coal-fired power plants but Obama's new EPA rules would about destroy the coal industry driving our energy costs through the roof. That's not all they would do, either.

Even Paul Bedard of USNews says that Obama's new EPA rules will "slam the coal industry so hard that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost."



Analysis by the National Economic Research Associates says that these two new EPA regulations would be "among the most expensive ever imposed by the agency on coal-fueled power plants, dramatically increasing electricity rates and natural gas prices and leading to substantial job losses," and would cost the U.S. electric sector nearly $18 billion a year.

"EPA's proposed regulations would be another severe blow to many sectors of our struggling national economy," said Steve Miller, president and CEO of ACCCE. "The analysis by NERA shows that these would be some of the most expensive EPA rules ever imposed on coal-fueled power plants — costing more than $180 billion, causing double-digit electricity rate increases in many states, and leading to substantial job losses nationwide. Many of these severe impacts would hit families living in states already facing serious economic challenges. Because of these impacts, EPA should make major changes to the proposed regulations before they are finalized."

It is likely that these estimates are low, too, as they are localized to America's electric producers and does not take into account the ripple effects that would reach out far and wide across the country.

This whole effort seems like just one more example of the anti-business, anti-growth, anti-capitalist agenda that Barack Obama has pursued with gusto since the day he became president. In fact, it is of a piece with the policies he said he'd implement when he was but a candidate in 2008.

As John Hinderaker at Powerline notes:

The cornerstone belief of American liberals is that the United States is too rich and too powerful. And, if you want to make America poorer and weaker, the easiest way to do so is by preventing the development of our energy resources. Such a policy hobbles our economy and causes massive transfers of wealth from the U.S. to other countries, many of which are hostile. Liberals think this is all to the good, but pretty much every other American disagrees.

That's right. Liberals and their leader, Obama, truly do want to cut America down to size, they want America laid low because in the liberal world view, the USA is an evil entity.

Obama has not been able to implement his full load of destructive polices via Congress. That is why the largest portion of his attacks on America have been made through his powers to regulate. These EPA rules are just two more examples of the hundreds Obama has perpetrated on this country. And they are nothing compared to what he really wants to do.

© Warner Todd Huston