A Holiday Present From The EPA

The people of the United States is getting a wonderful, though long overdue, holiday present from the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They are finally issuing rules which will force the coal-fired energy plants to either clean up their act (install devices to prevent pollution) or shut down.

And we're not just talking about preventing carbon dioxide emissions here. The new rules will "slash mercury pollution from burning coal by 90 percent, lung-damaging acid gases by 88 percent and soot-producing sulfur dioxide by 41 percent", along with a whole host of other poisons and cancer-causing chemicals. It will save American lives by cleaning the air, along with streams, rivers, and lakes.

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson called the new rules "the biggest clean air action yet", even bigger than the rule limiting cross-state line pollution and the agreement to double vehicle fuel economy standards. She said, "Before this rule, there were no national standards limiting the amount of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases that power plants across the country could release into the air that we breathe.


This should have been done long ago. Congress gave the EPA the authority to control power plant emissions back in 1990. By 2000, it became obvious that the plants would not comply with being forced to. But when the EPA tried to do that, the Bush administration stepped in a issued an executive order exempting the power plants from having to abide by toxic emissions rules from the EPA. It took a court order and a new president to overturn that.

Under the new rules, coal-fired power plants will have until 2016 to stop polluting or close down. The Obama administration is allowing the states to extend that time limit by one year on a case-by-case basis for special circumstances -- an extension that is approved of by environmental groups. Finally, the government is putting the health and safety of American citizens above the profits of the giant energy companies.

The power plants and their Republican lackeys are still trying to fight the new rules. The power plants have whined that the new rules will force blackouts and bring on higher electric prices. The blackout part is more of a threat to get the public behind them than a reality. There shouldn't be any blackouts due to these new rules. There could be some higher prices though. The pollution-control devices will have to be paid for. Hopefully, the states will oversee this and make sure the electric companies don't raise prices any more than is absolutely necessary. In any event, the health of our citizens and the environment is worth it.

Republicans are still trying to stop the new rules. House Republicans tacked an amendment to their version of the payroll tax cut bill, which would delay instituting the rules for at least another five years. That effort failed, but they will undoubtably keep trying to take this amendment on to other necessary bills. They need to pay back the power companies for the many millions of dollars they have donated to Republican campaign chests.

These rules have been needed for many years. The coal-fired power companies have been doing serious damage to the environment and seriously affecting the health of many thousands of Americans for too long now. President Obama needs to stand firm on this issue -- even if he has to veto some good bills to prevent more delay.