liveonearth (liveonearth) wrote,
liveonearth
liveonearth

Obama Gang Pushes New Regs on Power Plant Emissions

Texas and the Republicans are dead set against requiring utilities to generate x power per y emissions, but it sounds like a good idea to me. I'd like to breathe good air, please. I don't want anyone else in my family to become asthmatic because of coal burning in their region. And as for global warming, well, it's not easy to pin down and it's hard for me to get as excited about it as some people do. I do think our climate is changing and that we have increased the rate of change by our burning of fossil fuels. I am not sure that we can change that rate of change now that it has been initiated. But I'm diverging from the subject, which is that the Obama administration, specifically the EPA, is moving forward to enforce the Clean Air Act after Congress has failed to take any action on the issue. They've begun to take on specific state officials in the state of Texas who refuse to enforce federal laws.

I am going to begin to make posts in defense of Obama. Somebody needs to.

REGS COMING DOWN THE PIPE
Obama administration-->accelerating new greenhouse-gas regs for power plants and oil refineries
using the Clean Air Act
justified by Supreme Court decision and subsequent '09 finding that greenhouse gases are public health threat
rising global temperatures threaten disruptions to agriculture and coastal flooding, more
standards for controlling greenhouse-gas emissions from U.S. power plants by July 2011
deadline for refineries: December 2011
regs expected to limit CO2 emissions/megawatt hours of electricity produced

CONGRESS DIDN'T PASS ANYTHING TO REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS
the Republicans in congress are AGAINST regulating power plants
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has refused to sign the administration's climate agenda
Obama's people are working on him
Republican reps plan to put EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on the hot seat (read: crucify)

SMOKESTACK INDUSTRY IS DEAD SET AGAINST REGULATIONS
obviously
CO2 generating industries hate the idea of regulation because it will cost them MONEY
argue that new regs will "chill the economy and cost jobs"

PRICE OF ELECTRICITY WILL INCREASE
utilities will cope by switching to cleaner sources of energy
from coal to gas, wind, nuclear
utilities using mainly coal now will be paying more for the raw material
so prices will increase

TEXAS
flash point in controversy, oil-rich, industry-heavy, balking at federal mandates
EPA has had to take over certain clean-air permits as of 1/2/11 because state officials aren't enforcing
in last yr: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed 8 legal actions vs the EPA, sev re: greenhouse gas
generates 11% of US greenhouse-gas emissions, blows away other states
(according to the federal Energy Information Administration)

SOURCE
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703814804576035850405820760.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Tags: asthma, climate change, congress, economics, electricity, energy, epa, nukes, obama, oil, public health, texas, the long emergency, wind
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