Archive for January, 2013

Next EPA Administrator Should Understand All Domestic Energy Options

As talks continue about who the next EPA administrator might be, an editorial in The Oklahoman suggests our energy policy going forward must take into consideration that electricity production needs to be reliant on more than just one fuel source.

The editorial points out:

“Over time, gas prices will rise; increased demand (to make power and to fuel vehicles) will translate into higher severance tax revenues. At the same time, consumers could find that moving away from coal means sharply higher electricity rates.”

The editorial goes on to say, “As much as we encourage new markets for Oklahoma-produced gas, we believe that power generation should not be over-reliant on one source of fuel and coal should not be left in the ground.”

The next head of the EPA needs to analyze and understand the full, cumulative economic impacts of its regulations, and not choose sides when it comes to energy production.  American jobs are at stake, as well as access to affordable, reliable electricity that is essential to our economic recovery.

If energy issues like this are important to you, make sure that you become a member of America’s Power so you can stay up-to-date on ways you can support coal-based electricity in your state.

31 January 2013, 11:42 am | Posted in In the States | 1 comment »

EPA Continues to Ignore Damage of its Regulations

A follow up to the story we highlighted on Monday regarding the Navajo Generating Station, this time comes from the editorial board of the Arizona Republic. In the article, the board points out that research done by the plant’s operator, Salt River Project (SRP), concludes:

“SRP’s research also finds that the new emissions controls — which could cost up to $1.1 billion — would only marginally reduce the plant’s portion of that haze. Such a level of air-quality ‘improvement’ would not be perceptible to the human eye.”

The article then goes on to question the motives behind the billion dollar retrofit and asks, “If detectible haze reduction at the Grand Canyon is in dispute, that raises the broader question
of what really drives the EPA to take an action with such sweeping ramifications.” The Arizona Republic’s editorial board goes on to state, “And the EPA’s zealous and highly successful effort to close coal-fired power plants around the country is part of a conscious agenda created in Washington, D.C.”

But EPA job-killing stories aren’t only in Arizona, a recent story titled “Obama EPA kills power plant, 3,900 jobs in Texas“, points out that Chase Power, the parent company behind the $3 billion Las Brisas coal power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, announced that it was canceling the project. Chase CEO Dave Freysinger said,“The (Las Brisas Energy Center) is a victim of EPA’s concerted effort to stifle solid-fuel energy facilities in the U.S., including EPA’s carbon-permitting requirements and EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for new power plants.”

This is just further evidence that the EPA continues to ignore the damage that its new regulations are causing to the U.S. economy and to states that depend on coal for jobs and affordable electricity.

30 January 2013, 12:08 pm | Posted in In the States, Jobs | 1 comment »

Administration Willing to Sacrifice Navajo Coal Jobs?

In a column published in The Arizona Republic over the weekend titled “In their zeal, Obama team willing to sacrifice Navajos’ job“, writer Doug MacEachern argues that the potential closure of the coal-based plant on a Navajo reservation is less about the environment and more about “a bigger Obama administration mission.”

“Of all Barack Obama’s campaign promises in 2008, few are being fulfilled as aggressively as his assertion to the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board that energy companies can go ahead and build coal-fired power plants if they like, but doing so “will bankrupt them.”

The article goes on to say, “The coal mine that produces the fuel and the power plant itself together represent about 1,000 jobs, filled mostly by Navajos. To say that the uncertainty generated by the EPA’s decisions is causing anxiety among those few, lucky, working Navajos is a gross understatement.”

Today, our nation is focused on economic recovery – and creating well-paying jobs has become the number-one priority for most policymakers.  Coal is mined in 25 U.S. States and is responsible for more than 550,000 jobs in our country.  As a nation, we need to be focused on maintaining valuable jobs that workers current have, while finding new ways to create economic opportunities like some of the 21st Century coal-based power plants nearing completion.

Unfortunately, for small towns all over the country, the threat of economic disaster from the possible closure of local power plant and mining jobs is a story that it too often being repeated as we learned last year in our trip to Glen Lyn, Virginia.

28 January 2013, 10:18 am | Posted in In the States, Jobs | 1 comment »

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