New EPA Regulations: Lisa Jackson Denounces American Electric Power

WASHINGTON -- Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson hit back against powerful coal-burning utility American Electric Power on Wednesday, calling its recent claims that looming EPA rules will prompt massive layoffs and plant closings a "doomsday" scenario.

AEP said last week that the agency's proposed regulations on mercury and other toxic air pollution would cause the loss of 600 jobs and force the utility to prematurely retire nearly 6,000 megawatts from old coal-fired power power plants.

"The sudden increase in electricity rates and impacts on state economies will be significant at a time when people and states are still struggling" AEP Chairman Michael G. Morris said in a statement at the time. "We will continue to work through the EPA process with the hope that the agency will recognize the cumulative impact of the proposed rules and develop a more reasonable compliance schedule."

In her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning, Jackson roundly rejected that description of the situation. She also laid out the benefits of Clean Air Act regulations and accused industry lobbyists of distorting the truth for a paycheck.

"While Americans across the country suffer from this pollution, special interests who are trying to gut long-standing public health protections are now going so far as to claim that these pollutants aren't even harmful," said Jackson in a statement. "These myths are being perpetrated by some of the same lobbyists who have in the past testified before Congress about the importance of reducing mercury and particulate matter. Now on behalf of their clients, they're saying the exact opposite."

Jackson said the implementation of the EPA's newly proposed national standards for air pollution from power plants would prevent an estimated 17,000 premature deaths, 11,000 heart attacks and 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms.

The public comment period, which lawmakers say may be extended, is currently slated to end July 5.

Comments

[snowballinhell]

01:04 AM on 06/20/2011

Happened in April. Was it news? Not that I saw. Should it have been? Think so.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/BP-loses-power-issues-shelter-in-place-alert-120679184.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Kenz300]

02:22 PM on 06/18/2011

The oil, coal and nuclear industries have their PR machines going 24/7 as well as their contributions to the Republican party. We need to diversify our energy sources and types. Our economic security and national security will depend on our diversification which oil, coal and nuclear oppose. It is time to transition to wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste and get off the OPEC spigot.

[Pediego]

01:29 AM on 06/17/2011

Thank God for the government but too late for those deaths.

[bad spelling grammar]

05:26 PM on 06/16/2011

SUCH BS from the coal industry. They have nothing else to say other than to use fear to turn people against themselves. Fear can manipulate people to believe anything and any time someone uses fear to sway your opinion you should automatically notice their tactics and tell yourself to do your own research before you make up your mind.

[ejfreeman]

04:24 PM on 06/16/2011

Remember when if we stopped using ddt we would all starve to death and put millions out of work? just look at the good it has done. If they spent lobby money on fixing the problems they would make more profit, they are just too greedy and short sighted.

[ipolitics123]

12:02 AM on 06/18/2011

Tell the good news about DDT to the 881,000 people who die of malaria every year. Oops, you can't - they're DEAD!

http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/keyfacts.html

[Dave McRae]

04:12 PM on 06/16/2011

Interesting to read the views posted on this thread. Disappointing as well as interesting. There are corporations, but to just whitewash everything as some form of "corporate greed" is so simplistic and uninformed it's a joke. For another poster to claim Obama is running the Electric Industry, that's equally ridiculous and uninformed.

You people are clueless. Almost all of you. You don't know what you're talking about. You really are uninformed about the industry, and energy use in America. So, you act like superstitious tribesmen, taking about monsters and ghosts causing every problem. That's not where it's at, people.

It's simple. Take you last months electric bill out. Look at it. Not triple it. That's what it will cost to do what Germany is doing, and the Netherlands are doing. That's the bill for that. Can you pay it? If you can, then it's a good way to proceed, because it WILL work. It's just expensive as all get out. But it will work if you pay for it.

If you look at your bill and realize you cannot afford $600 electric bills, then you have to decide how much "green" you CAN afford, and take it from there and build green capacity slowly over time.

I know that's not as exciting as attacking each other over imagined crimes. But that's where it's at, people.

We, as Americans, can decide for ourselves how much we want to pay to reduce pollution.

[Cheshiremoe]

04:02 PM on 06/16/2011

Global warming is such a nebulous abstract concept to a lot of people. But is you talk about the other half of problem pollution causes like "the smog is going give your child asthma and you will have 50x greater chance of getting lung cancer" then people realize it is not just about protecting some endangered forest beetle. Its about your health and your families health.

[PRR Fan]

02:14 PM on 06/16/2011

The modern environmental movement is nothing but a front for Luddites, a bunch of do-gooder busybodies who are determined to turn back the economic clock of this country to pre-industrial levels.

[DoctorJohn]

09:44 PM on 06/16/2011

No, the luddites are the power companies that continue to rely on dirty coal to fire their plants instead of investing in the r&d to develop more efficient and less polluting systems for generating electricity. They are today's buggy whip makers.

[PRR Fan]

09:07 AM on 06/17/2011

Wrong. First, the coal companies have consistently developed new and more efficient technologies, such as fluidized bubbling-bed boilers, that are cleaner and far more efficient than older models. Problem is, the environmental wackos have succeeded in blocking any new power plant construction for over 30 years now, meaning that older, more polluting models remain online, sometimes well past their design lives. This leads to more pollution, higher prices and a greater chance of accidents as these boilers are used far longer than ever imagined.

Second, buggy whip makers didn’t go out of business until the automobile was established. The automobile was able to establish itself because it was easier than a buggy and made affordable by Ford. “Alternative” energy is meets neither of these conditions. Wind and solar are too inconsistent, the sun and wind being fickle and not tending to cooperate with human energy consumption patterns. And the only way they are cheaper is via subsidy, either directly through government money or indirectly by regulators artificially increasing the cost of fossil fuels.

[ipolitics123]

09:04 AM on 06/18/2011

Nobody needed to legislate against the buggy whip makers, they went out of business because a superior solution was found. When a GENUINE better way is found, coal will go away on its own.

[ipolitics123]

12:10 AM on 06/18/2011

It's really worse than that, they not only hate capitalism and industry they pretty much hate all of western civilization. They won't be happy until we're all back in the stone age (except them, of course.) They are infatuated with the concept of the "noble savage:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage

[Twinings]

01:14 AM on 06/18/2011

LOL. All people concerned with the environment are anti capitalist. What a crock. Just part of the rights need to demonize all those against unrestrained profiteering at the expense of economic sustainability.

[Max Shaw]

02:06 PM on 06/16/2011

Doomsday my a**...It would totally be though if say, we were upping our production output of chemicals like mercury, arsenic and carbon monoxide. Lets try to bring those levels down a bit. If I could be one of those people who DOESNT have to have a heart attack this year that'd be just super.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

03:12 PM on 06/16/2011

They can not keep moving the goal posts and claiming nothing is being done.
If the rules and regs are not being followed , that is the gov's fault .

[beckjr2000]

12:39 PM on 06/16/2011

On Dec. 23, 2010 Obama gave his flat-earth, no-growth environmentalist constituents an early holiday gift: Environmental regulation by circumventing Congress. It was Obama's radical EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, moving unilaterally to regulate power plant and oil refinery greenhouse emissions. It's the White House's attempt at enforcing Cap & Trade, which did not pass the Senate. Even though Lisa Jackson acknowledged before Congress that enforcement would have no effect on our climate, that's not the real objective. To quote Obama "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted. That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel, and other alternative energy approaches." The object is to destroy America's ability to generate inexpensive energy and promote "new" technology that is not and based on other countries efforts and results never will be cost efficient in our lifetimes.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

12:48 PM on 06/16/2011

Environmental illiteracy is a character flaw, not a legitimate personality preference. Reducing the natural world to fodder for unexamined and rapacious consumption is pathological. Time to substitute inquiry and self development for greed and material indulgence.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

01:07 PM on 06/16/2011

Very good Ape , environmental illiteracy is exactly where the peogressives are coming from.
They count on it for support and or blind obedience of changing the fundamentals of the way we live.

[DoctorJohn]

09:47 PM on 06/16/2011

Cap and trade was originally a conservative proposal to monetize carbon emissions so that the markets they worship could solve the pollution problem. Then when the idea gained traction, they flip-flopped and labeled it a tax. All cap and trade does is balance the external (hidden) costs of enery production, and its pollution by-products.

[beckjr2000]

12:20 PM on 06/16/2011

We will all be living in tents, caves, or Government sponsored slums at the rate we are going! Riding bicycles to our Nationalized Jobs and looking forward to our piece of the Redistribution of Wealth! I can't wait to have my Government approved allotment of food tonight!

[hburns1351]

12:38 PM on 06/16/2011

Personally I prefer to have clean air, clean water, edible food, sanitation, etc. But these important government functions are being gutted by the short sighted corporate owned puppets. And enabled by an uneducated citizenry who vote for them. I constantly hear the Randians who claim the free market will solve this...yeah right...history shows that unfettered capitalism ignores the plight of the working man and woman.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

01:10 PM on 06/16/2011

Unfettered capitalism and the free market are not the same thing.
I would rather live with the "uneducated citizenry " then as a government lackey, sheep for the slaughter.

[nanoscare]

12:39 PM on 06/16/2011

Don't worry... the Corporations will look after your every need. They'll tell you the truth and keep you safe from harm and never never never do anything to put your health in jeopardy while keeping their shareholders rolling in cash. Just like the energy jingle says, "A spoon full of mercury keeps the dividends from going down."

[ipolitics123]

09:09 AM on 06/18/2011

Yes, and the Government can be trusted with absolute power. That works so well in Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, etc.

Historically, we can see where your road leads by looking at Stalin's legacy: 30 million Russians starved to death. That's a heck of a weight loss program. Let's hope Michelle Obama doesn't have similar plans for her anti-obesity measures.

[ThomasPaine1776]

11:53 AM on 06/16/2011

NATIONALIZE ENERGY CORPORATIONS.

End it. Just FIRE these freaks that are polluting this world. IMPRISON them.

[PRR Fan]

02:07 PM on 06/16/2011

The real Thomas Paine would be rolling in his grave to see his name associated with such blatant Communism as you express.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

02:42 PM on 06/16/2011

Now , since they are monopolies , thats not a half bad idea .
But not under this regime, someone more responsible.

[lightningbolt]

11:48 AM on 06/16/2011

Clean renewable energy is the only type of energy that can power an industrialized nation indefinitely, cleanly, safely and profitably.  All other sources will run out and leave the planet in ruins.

[marianproletarian]

12:59 PM on 06/16/2011

Hear hear

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

01:17 PM on 06/16/2011

But it has not been discovered yet.

[PRR Fan]

02:08 PM on 06/16/2011

That's alright. In liberalism, anything is possible when you don't know what you're talking about.

[lightningbolt]

11:46 AM on 06/16/2011

The cost of coal is more than what is shown on the price of electricity.  The cost of coal includes the air pollution, water pollution, ground pollution, and health problems of coal workers.  Also, coal is a finite resource, and therefore, when ti becomes more scarce, its price will go up.  Clean renewable energy has none of these problems and can provide us with a lot more electricity.

[PRR Fan]

02:12 PM on 06/16/2011

There is enough coal in the U.S. to meet our projected demand for at least another century, the only thing making it scarce and driving up prices is the government. And the same problems you associate with coal are there for "renewables" as well. Solar panels and windmills require metals and large amounts of electricity with all of the attendant environmental consequences. And the idea that they can provide us with more electricity is patently false, it hasn't worked anywhere. Denmark has enough windmills to theoretically provide 100% of its electricity needs but never gets more that 25% from wind as the wind is fickle and doesn't blow just right exactly when the power is needed.

[WhatTheHolyHeck]

11:33 AM on 06/16/2011

They're like cartoon gangsters, standing over the nation's electrical plug, drawling, "You wouldn't want anything to happen to your nice electricity, would you?"

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

01:20 PM on 06/16/2011

Why do you blame the boogeyman ...when Obama and his bunch are saying exactly that and in your face?
Better stop worring about trolls and start looking at the politicians you give such blind faith.

[WhatTheHolyHeck]

02:57 PM on 06/16/2011

You're assuming (falsely) a heck of a lot. What makes you think I have blind faith in *any* politician? My post doesn't imply that, and none of my prior posts state that either.

It looks like you're the one with the issue, honey.