Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory push against the fossil fuel industry will cost America’s largest utility, the Southern Company, up to $18 billion in compliance costs. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to data in a filing by Southern last week, the EPA’s new emissions requirements cannot be met in the three years allowed by the agency. The results: more power plant closures, spikes in electricity prices, job losses, and increased power outages. Southern’s filing demonstrates that, based on company data …
Bloomberg reported Friday on the latest developments in the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory push against the fossil fuel industry. Southern Co., the largest American utility owner in terms of market share, now says it will lose up to $18 billion as a result of new EPA regulations. The planned regulations “are misguided in their content and timing,” Southern Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Fanning said today in a statement. Southern, based in Atlanta, is among energy companies that say new rules from President Barack Obama’s EPA will force some …
Here’s a simple test for whether the President is serious about jobs and the economy: Does he rein in the Environmental Protection Agency? With the debt ceiling issue resolved for the time being, President Obama has stated his intention to “pivot” to focus on jobs and the economy. Economic growth is stagnant, and unemployment is at unacceptable levels—and that’s not even including millions of discouraged people who have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Jobs and economic growth are the right focus. But there is, understandably, some skepticism that the …
Say goodbye to cars and trucks as you know them. Say hello to a brave new future ushered in by the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s one where the federal government reshapes a major U.S. industry by administrative fiat, all in pursuit of a policy goal that will cost money, jobs, and lives—all to satisfy the left’s environmentalist factions while dishing out taxpayer dollars to an Obama-favored unionized industry. That industry is the auto industry, and the Obama Administration is yet again using the mighty fist of the federal government to …
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to ensure that everything is bigger in Texas, including the state’s electricity rates and unemployment lines. On July 7, the EPA adopted a rule to place even more stringent regulations on sulfur dioxide emissions that could shut down the use of lignite coal in Texas. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson assured Texans that their economy and coal production would be just fine: Texas has an ample range of cost-effective emission reduction options for complying with the requirements of this rule without threatening reliability or the …
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it has finalized a pair of new regulations on power plants expected to produce massive economic damage and unemployment in coming years. The regulations aim to reduce pollution in down-wind states, and replace similar regulations created by George Bush’s EPA in 2005 and struck down by a federal court. President Obama was quite clear on the campaign trail that under his cap and trade plan, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” The EPA resumed the effort to regulate emissions after cap and trade died …
President Obama’s defenders are taking to the airwaves to rebut the charge that his actions have caused the dire employment figure we see today. The rebuttals mirror those the President is making, and they sure don’t lack in audacity. Some of the president’s enablers, for example, continue to claim that the unemployment rate is the fault of George W. Bush (even though it has been steadily rising two and a half years after Mr. Bush left office). Others say it is the structural result of deindustrialization. A third excuse making …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. Addicted to subsidies – Derek Scissors Health-care legislation will take millions off the tax rolls – Brian Blase & Paul Winfree Tax hikes not needed to balance budget – Curtis Dubay Budget Danger Ahead: How Republicans could get snookered again – James C. Capretta EPA stimulating environmental regulations abroad – John Rossomando Energy Clarity 101 – Mark Green E.P.A. Chief Stands Firm as Tough Rules Loom – John M. Broder Small …
President Obama’s infamous words—saying electricity rates will “necessarily skyrocket” under his cap-and-trade program that would impose a costly energy tax on American consumers—are set to come true. Just ask the market. Although cap and trade is not law, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) backdoor train wreck of energy regulations is forcing utilities to file for significant rate hikes in years to come because of the upgrades they will have to make or the complete shutdown of older plants. Take Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E), for instance. In what’s labeled as …
It is hard to make sense of many grants the U.S. gives to nations from whom it is simultaneously borrowing. The federal government’s profligate spending through grant programs is starting to get some notice—for example, on Fox News as well as The Foundry. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has provided a grant to the United Nations Environmental Program so it may help implement “Russia’s National Plan of Action for Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment from Anthropogenic Pollution.” With yet another grant, EPA is helping Interpol (the International …
