By EPW Blog ——Bio and Archives--June 15, 2012
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False: The resolution would not prevent EPA from regulating mercury or alter the Clean Air Act in any way. It would simply send the rule back to EPA to be rewritten under Congressional direction, hopefully in a way in which utilities could actually comply, and one that balances environmental progress with economic growth.Myth: Utility MACT is about public health
False: The Utility MACT rule is not about public health - it's about killing coal. How do we know? According to EPA's own analysis, Utility MACT will cost $10 billion a year to implement but that $10 billion will yield $6 million in projected benefits. That's a cost/benefit ratio of 1600 to 1. In fact, it is more likely that Utility MACT will harm rather than improve public health, because it will serve as a regressive tax on electricity that will hurt the poor and those on fixed incomes the most. Unemployment is a well-established risk factor for many illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, mental disorders, stress-related disorders, and decreases in life expectancy.Myth: Coal is not being killed by EPA regulations but by the cheaper price of natural gas
False: EPA itself has admitted that the agency deliberately and consciously made the decision to kill coal. EPA Region 1 Administrator Curt Spalding was caught on tape saying, "Lisa Jackson has put forth a very powerful message to the country. Just two days ago, the decision on greenhouse gas performance standard and saying basically gas plants are the performance standard which means if you want to build a coal plant you got a big problem." He also said that the decision by EPA to kill coal was "painful" because "you got to remember that if you go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all those places, you have coal communities who depend on coal. And to say that we just think those communities should just go away, we can't do that. But she had to do what the law and policy suggested. And it's painful. It's painful every step of the way."
Even without EPA's admission that the agency is deliberately killing coal, such a myth is based on the dubious assumption that the price of natural gas won't go up - and that natural gas will not be regulated out of existence by the Obama administration's anti-fossil fuel agenda. While President Obama goes around on the campaign trail pretending to support oil and gas, former Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz told us the truth that EPA's"general philosophy" is to "crucify" and "make examples" of oil and gas companies. This "crucify them" strategy includes an aggressive campaign to shift the authority over hydraulic fracturing from states to the federal government so that it can limit or eventually end the process altogether. EPA has initiated several major studies into fracking's impacts on water, and the agency is not going through with the studies in a transparent way or using the best available science. In short, if the administration is successful in killing coal, natural gas will be next on the agenda.Running for Cover The momentum for Senator Inhofe's efforts has grown so much that Senators Lamar Alexander (TN) and Mark Pryor (AR) found it necessary to introduce a cover bill for those Senators who need to appear to be reining in the EPA for their constituents back home, but in reality are allowing President Obama to continue to kill coal. This bill is unlikely ever to get a vote, but that's not the point - the point is just to have something out there that Senators in a tough spot can claim to support. This alternative is a clear admission that the Obama-EPA's policy is wrong - but it does not fix the problem; it simply puts off the day of execution for six years. We've seen this before. When the Upton-Inhofe Energy Tax Prevention Act came to the floor last year - a measure that would have prevented the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act - several Senators offered a number of counter amendments so they could have a cover vote. They wanted to appear to be reining in an out-of-control EPA for their constituents back home, all while letting President Obama go through with his job-killing regulations. Some chose to vote for the only real solution to the problem - the Energy Tax Prevention Act - and some chose the cover vote, but all in all, 64 Senators went on record that day as wanting to rein in EPA. The same thing is happening with the Utility MACT vote. Utility MACT Resolution the Only Real Solution to Ending President Obama's War on Coal Everyone agrees that the Senate should continue to build on the tremendous environmental progress America has made over the past 40 years. Unfortunately, the Obama administration's regulations continue to fail to strike the balance between growing our economy and improving our environment. Put simply, their agenda is about eliminating oil, gas and coal. As Senator Inhofe has said to those Senators who are running for cover: the time is now to stop, not just delay, President Obama's war on coal and affordable energy.
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