In the past I have written links posts called Links… Blog and Article Highlights and Midweek Links and Thoughts… but in thinking over the last couple months I have decided to change the name and fiddle with the format a bit, with the possibility of doing more postings but having less links within my new Links, Bits, and Pieces posts. I’m even debating on rotating between logos. My hubby suggested that I stick with one logo but I am a person that likes some variation from time-to-time so this new posting will be a work in progress. Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Is Obama’s war on coal going to hit your pocketbooks and/or wallets?
From Phil Kerpen:
Obama’s War on Coal has already taken a remarkable toll on coal-fired power plants in America.
Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago.
It’s the result of an unprecedented regulatory assault on coal that will leave us all much poorer.
Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”
The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.
Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year’s because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price. More here
It looks like the coal numbers aren’t really the coal numbers, but may in fact a mirage coerced by the Obama administration upon the coal industry. Nothing like fake numbers to prop up what is a failing economy to make it look good. As many as 200, ooo blue-collar jobs may be threatened by the Obama EPA’s newest rule which strangles the economy.
In obscure, blue-collar towns across Appalachia — places that most Americans have never seen — generations of coal miners have toiled away at back-breaking labor to power American homes and industry. Now, as many as 200,000 of them who dig, process, transport and burn America’s most abundant fuel are threatened by EPA’s latest coal rule.It imposes a standard for emissions that is all but impossible for many plants to meet. It requires coal-fired plants to release no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour. More here
