The latest proposed regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will force the closing of five American Electric Power (AEP) coal-fired power plants – THAT’S FIVE POWER PLANTS. The only option to closing is spending at least $8 BILLION renovating the plants to meet the newest guidelines. The legislation that Obama cannot get through Congress, is instead, being foisted on us through EPA regulations.

The Examiner:

…by bureaucratic decree what he could not achieve through the legislative process: force Americans to stop using fossil fuels to generate the energy that our society must have to function on a daily basis. The EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule for power plants will take giant steps toward doing exactly that.

Despite the fact the mercury pollution levels have been decreasing worldwide for two decades, the EPA’s proposed rule would force power companies to install costly new mercury-scrubbing equipment on existing coal-power plants. The EPA says this will reduce mercury emissions from coal plants by 91 percent. But the EPA’s own Regulatory Impact Analysis also concedes that the new regulation will lead to “new lower levels of consumption as a result of higher market prices.” That is bureaucratese for saying Americans will have a lower standard of living because they will have to pay more for energy.

Not to worry about the coal plants closing and the jobs lost. With mercury levels already decreasing, the administration says 30,000 new jobs will be created to watch/monitor mercury…as the levels decrease!

Perhaps you remember in 2008 when Obama told us exactly how it would be under his regime:

In January 2008 he told the San Francisco Chronicle, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. … Coal power plants, natural gas, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

Message to Republicans: When you take the microphone, you MUST tell us the exact EPA regulation that is killing jobs, or the tax code that is killing jobs, or the banking regulations that are killing jobs, or the Affordable Care Act provision that is killing jobs, or the lawsuits that are killing jobs, or the unionization that is killing jobs, and definitely, tell us the stories of the hijacking of American energy dependence and the laws and regs that keep us from drilling.

Give the name and number of the reg, law or code, when it went into effect, and name the number of jobs being lost and where. Don’t be vague. Be specific – and do it over and over and over on every issue.

Here is an example if a stat the entire Republican leadership should be quoting from Speaker John Boehner:

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), ‘The smallest firms (fewer than 20 employees) spend 36 percent more per employee than larger firms to comply with federal regulations’ – or roughly $10,585 per employee for all federal regulations.

If that data is heard often – $10,585 PER EMPLOYEE – cost to a Small Business owner – it would be remembered with horror by any reasonable American.

We are begging you to be clear and specific and loud. Get the message out. Our future depends on it.

Fabulous Cartoon Credit goes to Clay Bennett!

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie’s Notebook