NRCC Policy Primer: Why the Latest Attack in the “War on Coal” Matters for You
Today, the Obama Administration launched a major offensive in its ongoing War on Coal.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will propose requiring future coal-burning plants to take unprecedented and costly steps to curb or capture 40 percent of their greenhouse gas output.
The White House-vetted proposal would impose strict pollution standards requiring future coal-burning plants to capture and store at least 40 percent their carbon emissions, according to information provided to POLITICO late Thursday.
The EPA plan would essentially ban new coal-fired power plants unless they use expensive technology to capture carbon emissions. Similar rules are expected next June that will impose similar regulations on existing power plants. These new rules from the EPA could cripple the coal industry.
Similar regulations are expected to arrive in June of next year that would impose equally stringent regulations on existing coal-fired plants.
According to National Journal:
Meanwhile, Friday’s action sets the stage for an increasingly aggressive set of EPA climate regulations on coal plants. Following this step, EPA will start drafting a far more controversial regulation, requiring cuts in carbon pollution from existing coal plant—a measure that could lead to closure of current plants. Obama has told the agency to propose that rule by June 2014.
This is an important issue for three reasons.
Your Electricity Bill
The cost of electricity is something that affects every person in the U.S. and every sector of our economy. Business and family budgets include electricity costs, from the power in your home, to business costs for the production of goods and shipping.
Coal accounts for 40 percent of U.S. electricity. In fact, your home’s electricity is almost certainly coming from a coal-fired plant. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has around 1,400 coal-fired electricity generating units in operation at almost 600 plants across the country.
Be thankful.
According to the National Mining Association, coal results in electricity costs that generally are 50 percent lower in states that rely upon coal for more than half of their electricity generation versus states that rely on other fuels.
Remember in 2008, then-Candidate Obama has promised that his long term vision for the nation’s energy policy would necessarily cause electricity rates to “skyrocket.” Imposing these new costly regulations on the nation’s future, and soon existing, coal-fired power plants will most certainly help attain that goal.
“Coal. Natural gas…you name it. Whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to…uh…retrofit their operations. That will cost money, they will pass that money onto consumers.” – Barack Obama, January 2008.
Coal jobs…and maybe your job?
Coal is produced in 25 states spread across three major coal-producing regions. According to the National Mining Association, coal is responsible for the direct employment of 211,410 people and the creation of 3.5 jobs for every job in coal mining (because of the economic benefit, and resulting service economy that supports the coal industry, coal communities and states), for a total of more than 700,000 jobs.
Maybe that’s your job?
EPA’s regulations were just announced today, but they are already having a dramatic negative effect on jobs.
In fact, just this week in Kentucky, James River Coal laid off 525 coal workers in eastern Kentucky. And Black Hills Power has opted to shutter three coal plants in Wyoming and South Dakota after deciding it was too costly to upgrade them to comply with the regulations.
This is a trend that is expected to continue in the coal industry, and will only worsen once EPA issues regulations that apply to existing coal-fired plants. It will then soon expand to the service economy surrounding the industry, costing more jobs.
That’s because to meet the standard, new coal-fired power plants would need to install expensive technology to capture carbon dioxide and bury it underground. No coal-fired power plant has done that yet, in large part because of the cost. And those plants that the EPA points to as potential models, such as a coal plant being built in Kemper County, Miss., by Southern Co., have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and tax credits.
According to National Journal:
American Electric Power, an Ohio-based electric utility that owns one of the nation’s largest fleets of coal-fired power plants, stopped building new coal plants before the regulation came out. “We have no current plans to build any new coal-fueled power plants both because we don’t need additional generation, and it would be difficult to make an economic case for coal with today’s low natural gas prices,” wrote Melissa McHenry, a spokeswoman for the company, in an email. But she added, “If we value maintaining fuel diversity as a nation, a proposed rule that effectively eliminates coal as an option for new power plants is a serious concern, particularly if today’s plentiful supply of low-cost natural gas can’t be maintained.”
Reducing America’s All-of-the-Above Energy Portfolio
Promotion of renewable energy sources is needed, but the fact remains that fossil fuels will continue to serve as the dominant energy source for the foreseeable future. The development of new technologies in coal, natural gas and nuclear power, along with renewable fuels and ‘green’ energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydrogen will pave the way for our nation’s future energy independence. But most of those solutions are not yet technologically available to feasibly meet our ever-growing energy needs. In the meantime, a balanced approach is necessary to resolve U.S. energy needs, including the continued development and use of coal as well as the development new environmentally friendly clean coal technologies.
The U.S. holds the world’s largest estimated recoverable reserves of coal. In fact, we have enough estimated recoverable reserves of coal to last more than 200 years. It is currently the largest source of all U.S. electricity. Imposing draconian regulations designed to shut down the coal industry is both short-sighted and economically harmful, it also limits our nation’s energy portfolio when other technologies and energy sources are not yet ready to fill the ensuing energy void.
The President and CEO of the NMA told the AP:
“EPA has set a dangerous and far-reaching precedent for the broader economy by failing to base environmental standards on reliable technology,” said Hall Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association. The EPA regulation “effectively bans coal from America’s power portfolio,” he said.
Want to know more?
Check out your State’s Energy Profile: To view a comprehensive state energy profile with detailed energy data for your state, please visit the U.S. EIA state pages and select your state.