From the Wall Street Journal editorial page:
“The EPA is currently pushing an unprecedented rewrite of air-pollution rules in an attempt to shut down a large portion of the coal-fired power fleet…
That’s about 8% of all U.S. generating capacity. Merely losing 56 gigawatts—a midrange scenario in line with FERC and industry estimates—is the equivalent of wiping out all power generation for Florida and Mississippi. In practice, this will mean blackouts and rolling brownouts, as well as spiking rates for consumers…
The environmental regulatory system is so rigid that once a rule is in motion it is almost impossible to stop or roll back in a way that can withstand scrutiny in the courts…
The larger issue is whether the Administration’s green campaign is more important than economic growth. The EPA’s own lowball cost estimate for the mercury rule is $11 billion annually, though the capital expenditures to meet the increasingly strict burden will be far higher.”
The EPA has data that proves air quality has been getting steadily better since 1980:
http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/
They are aware of the fact that air quality is now so good that few people are suffering adverse health effects from ‘air pollution.’
They are victims of their own success. To protect their jobs they are desperately looking for *other* things to regulate (like CO2), even if the things they regulate are not pollutants but natural or essential constituents of the air.
Once they lose their responsiveness to the people, governments exist only to govern.
Air pollution is very dangerous for the humans and it also destroy the beauty of nature. Govt. and every one should take some steps to escape the beauty of nature & life of humans.
The people in the US will not tolerate rolling blackouts. The greenies will face a backlash the likes of which they can’t imagine even in their worst nightmares. There will be loss of life and riots. It will be the fulfillment of the hard-core environmental movement, and it’s demise. Bring it on. I have a generator.