GAO study: EPA regulations will kill coal plant jobs and raise energy prices

From CNS News.

Excerpt:

New regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency will lead to the closure of older, coal-fired power plants and boost electricity prices in some parts of the country, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO, at the behest of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), reviewed a host of information from government sources such as the EPA and Energy Information Agency (EIA) as well as private energy-sector forecasters to determine the likely impact of four new EPA regulations aimed at coal-fired power plants.

[...]GAO found that as many as 12 percent of coal-fired power plants may be closed because the EPA regulations make it too expensive for power companies to operate them, despite coal being one of world’s cheapest fuels.

“It is uncertain how power companies may respond to four key Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, but available information suggests companies may retrofit most coal-fueled generating units with controls to reduce pollution, and that 2 to 12 percent of coal-fueled capacity may be retired,” GAO said.

These changes – either installing expensive retrofits or closing power plants – will drive up electricity prices by as much as 13.5 percent in some areas of the country.

“Available information suggests these actions would likely increase electricity prices in some regions,” GAO said. “Regarding prices, the studies GAO reviewed estimated that increases could vary across the country, with one study projecting a range of increases from 0.1 percent in the Northwest to an increase of 13.5 percent in parts of the South more dependent on electricity generated from coal.”

Coal is the country’s single-largest source of electricity, accounting for 42 percent of power generation in 2011, GAO reported.

[...]The regulations at issue were all put in place by President Obama’s EPA to deal with power plant emissions and industrial waste called coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal.

This is another issue to communicate to everyone who will be voting in November. We already have price inflation from rising gas prices due to insufficient energy production at home, as well as currency inflation from several rounds of money printing and debt monetization. If we have to add to that higher electricity costs, then we really will be in trouble.

Filed under: News, Coal, Drilling, Eco-Fascism, Economy, Electricity, Energy Policy, Environmentalism, EPA, Gas Prices, Global Warming, Government, Jobless, Joblessness, Jobs, Ohio, Oil and Gas, Pennsylvania, Regulation, Socialism, Unemployment, West Virginia

Ohio governor John Kasich’s energy policy: sustainability and job creation

All of the above makes a lot of sense in Ohio, as John Kasich explains in the Columbus Dispatch.

Excerpt:

Ohio’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors are highly productive and among our state’s largest employers. They’re also big energy users and part of the reason why Ohio ranks seventh nationally in energy generation.

With energy being so important to major Ohio job creators, it’s critical that we do everything possible to make it inexpensive, plentiful and reliable.

Unfortunately, Ohio faces major headwinds on energy from Washington. The U.S. lacks the kind of comprehensive energy policy it takes to achieve energy independence and help job creators secure low prices and reliable supplies. Furthermore, coal — which supplies 86 percent of our electricity — irritates the current president, and his administration’s EPA repeatedly threatens more red tape on Ohio’s growing shale-oil-and-gas industry.

This uncertainty from Washington isn’t sustainable for Ohio. If we want to see more Ohioans working again, we need to foster low costs and greater certainty in energy, and if we can’t get it with help from Washington, then Ohio must seek it ourselves.

That’s his thesis – now let’s see some of the details:

[M]y administration worked with Ohio State University and Battelle to convene the Governor’s 21st Century Energy & Economic Summit. Over two days, the summit brought together 50 panelists from business, government, academia and environmental groups and more than 1,000 attendees to discuss the latest, brightest thinking on energy. These conversations were the first step in helping Ohio’s policymakers develop a comprehensive energy policy to support job creation. That work continued over the winter and produced a comprehensive plan covering the full range of Ohio energy issues. I’m proud to say I’m signing that plan into law on Monday.

A major focus of Ohio’s new energy policy is oil-and-gas production in our state’s Utica shale formations. With new technologies making it possible to tap oil, natural gas and natural-gas liquids in shale rock deep beneath the surface, the potential exists to permanently lift the economy of eastern Ohio and turn Ohio into a major oil-and-gas producer. It’s only smart to make sure that as this new industry comes on the scene, strong policies are in place that can help ensure its safety and success. Ohio’s energy policy does that by modernizing our regulatory structure to protect the public, the environment and the industry’s workers and to facilitate the industry’s growth.

Ohio’s new energy policy also promotes clean-energy generation. While Ohio’s manufacturers are certainly big energy users, they’re also potential sources of clean energy. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that as much as 2,000 megawatts of energy could be generated by capturing and reusing the waste heat in Ohio factories. That’s enough to power more than 1.4 million Ohio homes. To help encourage this, Ohio’s new energy policy adds waste heat to the list of clean-energy sources, along with solar and wind, that can earn special “renewable energy credits,” credits that manufacturers can then sell for extra income.

Other highlights of Ohio’s new energy policy include efforts to encourage the use of cars that run on natural gas, to improve state buildings’ energy efficiency, to get electricity to the places where it’s most needed to create jobs, to create programs that link Ohioans who need jobs with training for the new jobs in the oil-and-gas industry, and to make valuable investments in clean-coal research   and technology.

If I had to pick the 3 best governors in the USA, I would pick Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. These guys punch way above their weight, and all 3 states are swing states. You have to have better ideas to win those states. You have to win on the merits.

Filed under: Commentary, Clean Energy, Conservation, Energy Policy, Job Creation, Jobs, John Kasich, Ohio

Republicans ban taxpayer-funding of abortion in Arizona

ECM sent me this story from Fox News.

Excerpt:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill to cut off Planned Parenthood’s access to taxpayer money funneled through the state for non-abortion services.

Arizona already bars use of public money for abortions except to save the life of the mother, but anti-abortion legislators and other supporters of the bill have said the broader prohibition is needed to make sure that no public money indirectly supports abortion services.

“This is a common sense law that tightens existing state regulations and closes loopholes in order to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions, whether directly or indirectly,” said Brewer, a Republican. “By signing this measure into law, I stand with the majority of Americans who oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortion.”

Arizona has said a funding ban would interrupt its preventive health care and family planning services for nearly 20,000 women served by the organization’s clinics. The organization has said it will consider a legal challenge.

The measure targeting funding for Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services was one of several approved by Arizona’s Republican-led Legislature related to contentious reproductive health care issues during a 116-day session that ended Thursday. Brewer is a Republican.

Other approved Arizona bills include one generally banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which Brewer has already signed, and one loosening a state law that generally requires health care plans to cover contraception.

This is good news for pro-lifers in Arizona, but we are facing some setbacks in Ohio and Texas.

Related posts on Planned Parenthood

• Does the United Way give money to abortion-provider Planned Parenthood?
  
• New House GOP bill de-funds Planned Parenthood
• Obama administration wants birth control to be covered by health insurance
• Obama administration threatens Indiana for defunding Planned Parenthood
• Are the Girl Scouts linked to the abortion provider Planned Parenthood?
• 91% of Planned Parenthood clinics help hide statutory rapists
• What is Planned Parenthood and why do Democrats support them?
• Does Planned Parenthood really use taxpayer money to provide mammograms?
• Feminists push liberal sexual agenda at United Nations
• Planned Parenthood stung three more times by Live Action
• Planned Parenthood caught helping pimp to run underage sex-trafficking ring
• Planned Parenthood releases annual report – 324,008 babies aborted
• Undercover video of Planned Parenthood selling abortion with misinformation
• Is Planned Parenthood overbilling state and local governments?
• Planned Parenthood conceals rape and breaks the law
• Undercover video of Planned Parenthood selling abortion with misinformation
• How much money does Planned Parenthood receive from taxpayers?
• How much profit does the non-profit Planned Parenthood make?
• Is Planned Parenthood overbilling state and local governments?
• Planned Parenthood conceals rape and breaks the lawResearchers link rise in some cancers to increased sexual activity
• Should birth control pills be dispensed over the counter?
• Another study confirms the link between abortion and breast cancer
• New study finds that abortion increases risk of breast cancer by 40%

Filed under: News, Law, Abortion, Pro-Life, Republican Party, Planned Parenthood, Conservative, Texas, Judge, Social Conservative, Ohio, Jan Brewer, Ruling, Republican Governor

Obama tries to take credit for Ohio’s resurgence under John Kasich

Central United States

Doug Ross writes about it at Director Blue.

Excerpt:

In celebrating Ohio’s comeback, Obama is unintentionally repudiating his own policies. It turns out that, in spite of Obama, Ohio is 4th in the nation in job creation and tops in the Midwest. In the previous four years before Republican Gov. Kasich came into office, Ohio was 48th.

Even the states that are ahead of Ohio in job creation are far larger. Check out the other members of the top five job-creating states: Texas, New York, California and Florida. All are far more populous than Ohio. Florida, for instance, has 6.5 million more people, yet Ohio edged it out in job creation.

In fact, February’s BLS data showed that Ohio created more jobs than any other state. When was the last time that happened? Can’t tell, because the BLS doesn’t offer data prior to the Clinton era, so it’s been at least that long.

In short, Ohio proves that conservative fiscal policies work in spite of Barack Obama. While Obama’s “leadership” destroyed America’s pristine AAA credit rating, S&P was simultaneously upgrading Ohio’s rating.

[...]Kasich has a damn good record when it comes to fiscal policies. Bill Clinton won’t ever admit it in public, but the real architect of the much-ballyhooed ‘Clinton Surplus’ was none other than John Kasich, the Paul Ryan of Newt Gingrich’s House of Representatives.

John Kasich is one of three governors that I am watching closely. The other two really good ones are Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. I personally think that Kasich is the best governor in the United States of America. And Ohio has a great Senate candidate too, named Josh Mandel.

Filed under: News, Barack Obama, Buckeye, Business, Economics, Economy, Jobs, John Kasich, Ohio, Recovery, Small Business, Unemployment, Unions

Government spending bankrupts our children and grandchildren

Ohio conservative Jim Jordan speaks out for generations not yet born.

Excerpt:

Government spending at its current level is “immoral, wrong and unfair” to the future generations that will be left to pay off ever increasing amounts of debt, Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee tells Newsmax.TV.

That’s why the new budget proposal the committee revealed on Tuesday is so much better than another GOP proposal put forward by Budget Committee chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan, he said.

“We have a debt that is bigger than our entire economy, a debt that’s bigger than our GDP,” said the Ohio congressman. “We have to talk straight with the American people and say we are now making interest payments of $230 billion a year and that is going to increase dramatically over the next 10 years to where interest payments will be bigger than what we currently spend on national defense.

“It is immoral, it is wrong, it is unfair for one generation to live for the moment, to spend for the moment and send the bill to our kids and our grandkids. That is just wrong.”

Jordan said one of the things that makes America great is the concept that each generation makes sacrifices so their children can have a better life than they had. “Each generation has done it for the next until now.

“For the first time in American history we have a generation of Americans living for the moment and saying, ‘That’s OK, and we will send the bill to someone else.’

“We need to make that case and spell out what happens if we don’t begin to fix it, that we will in fact have a debt crisis just like Greece, just like Italy, just like these other countries are facing today. That should not happen to the greatest country in the world and that’s what our budget would prevent.”

This is why we should not believe the Democrats when they tell us sob stories about need to spending more money “fore the children”. The only thing that the children will get from the Democrats is unemployment and debt.

Filed under: News, Children, Entitlements, Future, Government, Jim Jordan, Ohio, Parents, Spending