×

There seem to be no boundaries for EPA

Coal miners and Americans worried about higher electric bills may be wondering when the Environmental Protection Agency will run out of ideas to drive the cost of coal-fired power up. Not yet, the EPA made clear last week.

New stream protection rules were announced by the agency, and they target coal mines. In that industry, the reaction was a mixture of anger and a kind of combat fatigue. Miners and coal companies have begun to understand that being under attack by their government is a way of life.

EPA officials defend the new rules, insisting they are needed to safeguard water quality and environments. But it has been pointed out states, which are supposed to have most of the responsibility for that, already had effective rules in place.

So why is the EPA – insisting, by the way, that the new initiative will cost “only” 200 coal industry jobs – unveiling its new proposal?

Simple: Remember what President Barack Obama said before he was elected? He told radical environmentalists that under his administration, utilities would be free to build new coal-fired power plants – but that he would make certain doing so would bankrupt them.

Complying with the new rules will cost money – on top of that already being spent by both coal companies and utilities to deal with regulations spawned by the Obama administration.

To meet EPA rules, many utilities are shuttering coal-fired power plants and replacing them with units that burn natural gas. Generating electricity with that fuel costs about 52 percent more than with coal.

But the gap is much narrower than it was just a year ago. During that period, the cost of gas to generate electricity with a million BTUs of energy dropped from $5.33 to $3.48. During the same period, the price of coal to accomplish the same task stayed relatively constant. In April, it was $2.28.

In Washington, that $1.20 difference is seen by some as an opportunity – not to bring the price of gas down to match coal, but to force the price of coal up. The new water rules will have an effect.

If – and it is a big “if” – the EPA can make coal a less price-competitive fuel, it will make the agency’s plan to kill the coal industry easier to sell to the public.

Then, having destroyed Americans’ access to reasonably priced electricity from coal, the radicals can move on – in a campaign already being started – to do the same with gas.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today