Power Plant Closures

So if somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them…”– Barack Obama speaking to San Francisco Chronicle, January 2008

More than 72 gigawatts (GW) of electrical generating capacity have already, or are now set to retire because of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations. The regulations causing these closures include the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (colloquially called MATS, or Utility MACT)[1], proposed Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR)[2], and the proposed regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.



To put 72 GW in perspective, that is enough electrical generation capacity to reliably power 44.7 million homes[3]—or every home in every state west of the Mississippi River, excluding Texas.[4] In other words, EPA is shutting down enough generating capacity to power every home in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana.


Over 94 percent these retirements will come from generating units at coal-fired power plants, shuttering over one-fifth of the U.S.’s coal-fired generating capacity.[5] While some of the effected units will be converted to use new fuels, American families and businesses will pay the price with higher utility bills and less reliability for their electricity.

This report is an update of a report we first issued in October 2011.[6]  In the original report, we calculated that 28.3 GW of generating capacity would close as a result of EPA’s regulations. At the time, we warned, “…This number will grow as plant operators continue to release their EPA compliance plans.” Unfortunately, this statement has proven to be true and will continue to grow in the future as new EPA regulations continue to be released. This latest update shows that 72.7 GW of electrical generating capacity will now close—a 44.4 GW increase.


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Obama’s EPA About To Make The ‘Biggest Land Grab In The History Of The World’

It seems like the Obama administration is interested in grabbing as much as they can, and putting it under the control of the federal government.

Via WND:

In a move lawmakers and farmers are calling “the biggest land grab in the history of the world,” the Environmental Protection Agency is requesting jurisdiction over all public and private streams in the United States that are “intermittent, seasonal and rain-dependent.”

The EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late March jointly released a proposed rule, Waters of the United States, in an effort to clarify which streams and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act.

A statement issued by the EPA says “the proposed rule will benefit businesses by increasing efficiency in determining coverage of the Clean Water Act.”

But some lawmakers strongly disagree.

According to congressional budget testimony last week, Waters of the United States would give the EPA authority over streams on private property even when the water beds have been dry, in some cases for hundreds of years.

Calling it “the biggest land grab in the history of the world,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said the “economic impact of that would be profound.”

“A community needing to build on private land that had on it one of these so-called streams that you considered a waterway under the new rule would have to travel thousands, hundreds of miles to D.C., to get approval,” Rogers said.

The congressman argued it “would absolutely freeze economic activity in this country.”

Rogers said the proposal is “proof in and of itself of the mal-intent of this administration toward the private sector.”


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Obama’s War On Coal Is Devastating Small Communities

The harm caused by EPA’s regulatory assault on the coal industry is spreading to communities throughout coal country. Miners in West Virginia and Kentucky were the first to feel the consequences of President Obama’s war on coal when they lost their jobs as the industry responds to plummeting utility demand for coal.

According to SNL Financial, more than 25,000 miner jobs were lost since 2011.

Now utility workers and their surrounding communities are feeling the impact as power companies close coal-fired power plants in response to a series of EPA regulations issued during Obama’s first term. Utility executives are finding it cheaper to close plants instead of retrofitting them to comply with EPA’s regulatory mandates.

A story in the Charleston Daily Mail describes the economic impact to the town of Louisa, KY as it prepares to deal with the planned closure of the Big Sandy power plant.

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