Today we received more news of the negative impact of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Utility MACT rule. Due to this onerous rule GenOn Energy will be forced to shutter eight plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Jersey.
These closings will again result in the loss of jobs and have a negative impact on the local communities. Often we forget about the ripple effect of these regulations and how it can impact a small town and community.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Camille “Bud” George is quoted on his concerns by Gant Daily’s story on the annoucement:
“Pragmatic energy policies should not guillotine coal from the nation’s energy grid,” George said. “Unfortunately, reasonable policies that would address valid health concerns while keeping coal and the Shawville plant in the long-term mix for energy viability were not pursued.”
Today’s announcement comes on top of other announcements we’ve seen in recent weeks. As we’ve said before if President Obama is serious about an “all of the above” approach to energy it should really include ALL options such as clean coal, shale and the Keystone XL pipeline.
April 19th, 2012 on 1:31 am
I like clean air, i like the idea of addressing outdated power plant operations now instead of kicking it down the road, too bad that GenOn Energy chose to shed jobs rather than some profit, perhaps there were no reasonable alternatives presented, all of the above does include shale and “clean” coal (mutually exclusive, seems to me) but you are going to have to sort out the problems with your pipeline idea before that can happen. Well, nice chatting with you, and keep up the great work, you’ll get that job at Fox yet. You betcha;)