The Obama administration is pressing ahead with tough requirements for new coal-fired power plants, moving to impose for the first time strict limits on the pollution blamed for global warming.

The proposal would help reshape where Americans get electricity, away from a coal-dependent past into a future fired by cleaner sources of energy. It's also a key step in President Barack Obama's global warming plans, because it would help end what he called "the limitless dumping of carbon pollution" from power plants.

Although the proposed rule won't immediately affect plants already operating, it eventually would force the government to limit emissions from the existing power plant fleet, which accounts for a third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Obama has given the Environmental Protection Agency until next summer to propose those regulations.

The EPA provided The Associated Press with details of the proposal prior to the official announcement, which was expected Friday morning. The public will have a chance to comment on the rule before it becomes final.

Despite some tweaks, the rule packs the same punch as one announced last year, which was widely criticized by industry and Republicans as effectively banning any new coal projects in the U.S.

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.

Coal, which is already struggling to compete with cheap natural gas, accounts for 40 percent of U.S. electricity, a share that was already shrinking. And natural gas would need no additional pollution controls to comply.

"For power producers and coal mining companies that reject these standards, they have no reason to complain, and every excuse to innovate," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the author of a 2009 bill to limit global warming. The legislation, backed by the White House, passed the House, but died in the Senate.

A powerful Republican opponent of the EPA plan, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said in an emailed statement that "the president is leading a war on coal."

The regulations have been in the works since 2011 and stem from a 1970 law passed by Congress to control air pollution. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that that law, the Clean Air Act, could be applied to heat-trapping pollution. The EPA already has issued rules aimed at curbing global warming pollution from automobiles and the largest industrial sources.

An EPA official told the AP that the rule doesn't specify any particular technology. But the official acknowledged that carbon capture was the only current technology available for a company to meet the threshold of 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour of electricity. To put that in perspective, a modern coal plant without carbon controls would release about 1,800 pounds per megawatt hour.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement of the rule had not been made.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-takes-coal-carbon-limits-20313553

Coal...lol. Going the way of the typewriter.

Good thing he was ready with a replacement for all that electric power that's going to be turned off.

Those nasty old coal fired power plants causing global warming and all.

Yep....good thing he invested plenty of cash in Soylendra.....er.....okay...so maybe one of the other green companies if there are any that haven't gone belly up.
Attachments:

Vexxxed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good thing he was ready with a replacement for all
> that electric power that's going to be turned
> off.
>
> Those nasty old coal fired power plants causing
> global warming and all.
>
> Yep....good thing he invested plenty of cash in
> Soylendra.....er.....okay...so maybe one of the
> other green companies if there are any that
> haven't gone belly up.

Two words: Natural gas.

Thank you. Thank you very much!

There are two sides to every story. Ending our dependency on coal may or may not have an impact on climate change. It most certainly will deliver a major blow to the economies of certain parts of Virginia, Wext Virginia and Kentucky. Even though coal mining isn't the major employer that it was in the 1960s and earlier, what jobs remain are still middle class jobs. Whatever comes along to replace them (if anything) is not likely to pay as well.

One acronym: STFU

On the other hand, why isn't there a true plan in place to transition from coal to alternatives? Instead, agencies like the EPA are reaching far above their power limitations to create new laws to curb the use of coal.

In short order, people will see their electric bills jump in price by quite a large margin.

The Obama worshipers are all giddy and drunk on the spewing that Obama does, but when it hits them in the wallet, they'll start singing a different tunes.

Thank you! Thank you, very much!

Coal power may cut into Obamas muslim buddies oil business.

The Chinese on average open a coal fueled power plant once a week. Why doesnt the community organizer tell them to stop using coal.

Fuck em. Coal is dirty, dangerous to produce, and destructive to the landscape and the environment (without even considering CO2). It makes perfect sense to essentially prohibit new coal fired power plants, unless the utilities can figure out how to sequester the CO2 economically (doubtful). Build nuclear, NG, solar, geothermal, tidal, and wind power plants, push conservation, and nobody will fucking notice the difference, except some coal miners, and they work in a dying industry, and I think they deserve help but not continuation of their jobs at incredible expense to everyone else. I bet there were some lead miners who were put out of work when they banned lead in gasoline, but what the fuck, were we supposed to live with lead in our air and water just so they could keep their jobs?

Sequestering is just stupid.

Coal isn't much different than natural gas, both are fossil fuels and are not sustainable in the long run really. both produce the same amount of CO2. Coal does have a few more byproducts but I think those are pretty much handled.

Shortening the carbon cycle seems like a better long term solution. But that doesn't seem as popular and exciting as solar and wind.

Peak coal has already come to the Eastern US

http://grist.org/list/2011-09-28-peak-coal-comes-to-appalachia/

From Da Hood -- The Original Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One acronym: STFU
>
> On the other hand, why isn't there a true plan in
> place to transition from coal to alternatives?
> Instead, agencies like the EPA are reaching far
> above their power limitations to create new laws
> to curb the use of coal.
>
> In short order, people will see their electric
> bills jump in price by quite a large margin.
>
> The Obama worshipers are all giddy and drunk on
> the spewing that Obama does, but when it hits them
> in the wallet, they'll start singing a different
> tunes.
>
> Thank you! Thank you, very much!


Attachments:

Global warming is a hoax....this is govt way (Obama and the rest of his commie friends) to take over the country and control you 100%.


If you voted for the loser, you deserve what you get

Attachments:

Terry McAuliffe has got to just be loving this LOL. In an election this tight, the union labor in Va's coal country will be taking this out on poor Terry.

your soooo stupid :)

d.c. pays for coal and, as dc usual, is going to hold up the bank and not pay

so they built large federal buildings right near the coal mines

next step is to start issuing memorandums (lock step orders) to get out all WV workers and put all obama-ites in. meaning people from dc and fucking foreigners.

they will then write federal rules controlling how coal is mined, and dc will get their coal for free, and the fucking foreigners will get the jobs,

and the WV people will have their throats cut

---------------------------------

#1 install big fed building right next to coal mine

#2 kill off the hicks and steal the coal. let foreigners make it european standards.

#3 skip town, laugh it up in FL while they suffer, on the money dc never paid for coal from a state of wv they attacked using fed money

#4 shred all documents showing huge financial problems and give-aways. rewrite history to make it look like things were always that way. like the debt ceiling and laws against slush funds: shredded



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2013 02:49PM by svennestle.

svennestle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> d.c. pays for coal and, as dc usual, is going to
> hold up the bank and not pay
>

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the dedicated power plant for capitol hill (on south Capitol street) is also coal fired. If this is the case, it will be hilarious to see the politicians having to sit on their hands in their cold chambers in order to keep the circulation in their hands moving.

From Da Hood -- Keep Coal Alive Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Also, if I'm not mistaken, the dedicated power
> plant for capitol hill (on south Capitol street)
> is also coal fired. If this is the case, it will
> be hilarious to see the politicians having to sit
> on their hands in their cold chambers in order to
> keep the circulation in their hands moving.

I think Gerry will stay warm, he seems chunky enough.

RJR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fuck em. Coal is dirty, dangerous to produce, and
> destructive to the landscape and the environment
> (without even considering CO2). It makes perfect
> sense to essentially prohibit new coal fired power
> plants, unless the utilities can figure out how to
> sequester the CO2 economically (doubtful). Build
> nuclear, NG, solar, geothermal, tidal, and wind
> power plants, push conservation, and nobody will
> fucking notice the difference, except some coal
> miners, and they work in a dying industry, and I
> think they deserve help but not continuation of
> their jobs at incredible expense to everyone else.
> I bet there were some lead miners who were put
> out of work when they banned lead in gasoline, but
> what the fuck, were we supposed to live with lead
> in our air and water just so they could keep their
> jobs?

says the guy who drives a car to work

From Da Hood -- Keep Coal Alive Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> svennestle Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > d.c. pays for coal and, as dc usual, is going
> to
> > hold up the bank and not pay
> >
>
> Also, if I'm not mistaken, the dedicated power
> plant for capitol hill (on south Capitol street)
> is also coal fired. If this is the case, it will
> be hilarious to see the politicians having to sit
> on their hands in their cold chambers in order to
> keep the circulation in their hands moving.

SHUT IT DOWN!

Maybe if we do, they'll leave.