I am extremely worried (outraged!) about the EPA’s new Cross-State rules (CSAPR). These new rules, hastily arranged and issued this past July, seek to reduce certain amounts of airborne pollutants emanating from coal burning power plants. The EPA claims these rules will both save lives and reduce healthcare costs – both of which are counterfactual and can never be proven. What can be proven, however, are the economic costs these rules will impose on industry and consumers.
Already, power company Luminant has warned it cannot meet the unreasonable deadline of January 2012 and will have to shutter plants in order to comply. As you know, Texas experienced a cold winter this year, which lead to rolling black outs for residents of San Antonio. This summer has also proven taxing to the electric grid, with Texans barely avoiding another rolling black out due to record high demand. If power plants are mothballed to comply with EPA’s new rule, Texans can expect more frequent disruptions in the future.
This new pie-in-the-sky rule promulgated by unelected bureaucrats affects 27 states and threatens millions of American’s access to reliable electricity. It is shameful that Congress has allowed this run-away agency to saddle hard working Americans with higher energy bills, reduced employment, and unreliable energy, all while doing little to improve air quality. It is high time Congress rein in these alphabet soup federal agencies and their merry band of regulators who seek to destroy our economy under the guise of “protecting Americans.”
The Senate wisely failed to adopt “cap and trade,” and this new rule is nothing more than President Obama’s war on coal. Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised, as Obama is simply living up to a campaign promise to lay waste to our national coal industry. Nearly one-half of Americans get electricity from coal, and Obama’s EPA will significantly increase energy costs for just about all of them. This is unconscionable, and it’s time for Congress to act.
I want to know what action you plan to take to ensure all Texans have access to reliable and affordable energy.
Sincerely,
Brad Dunnagan
The EPA is a direct result of taking property rights regarding pollution away from the people. It's a transfer of power from society to the state. The way it should work, and used to work in this country, is that if some coal plant violated your airspace, and caused real damage to you or your stuff, you could sue the coal plant. Of course, the damage had to be real and provable.
ReplyDeleteBtw, what's a cold winter in Texas? 65 at night, 80 in the day?
Well, we Texans can't hold a candle to your definition of cold, but it does get chilly. Our coldest night was around 18 degrees. That's unheard of for these parts, I'm told. Water lines aren't protected here like ones in the north.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree on your assessment. I wonder what the turning point was that caused the State to take away our ability to sue for trespassing. What's the difference between my neighbor throwing his trash on my lawn and a dirty coal plant consistently polluting my the air around my home?
This new EPA rule is over 1,300 pages in length - it's back door cap and trade. What I wish is for Americans to wake up and realize and finally acknowledge that their government is the enemy of liberty; is the reason we have regime uncertainty; and is the ultimate source of our economic woes.
1300 pages! Holy cow! It's stimulus for lawyers.
ReplyDeleteMy reading indicates that things started to change in the 19th century, but I have yet to turn some real effort into tracking it down.
18F is pretty chilly, I'll give you that. See, once you get down to -25, another 10 degrees doesn't matter too much. You just get numb. We're crazy here, too - we "harden" by going out in November and December without coats on for 5-10 minutes at a time so you acclimatize easier.