The EPA believes it has the ability to impose new regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants including mercury and arsenic without Congressional approval.
Oddly, both Republicans and Democrats are against a sweeping power grab by unelected officials who have no accountability and no oversight. Regardless, until it is resolved, new rules are driving power plants out of existence.
If you think energy prices are too high, wait until more power plants close. American Electric Power said yesterdsy that it will shut down five coal-fired power plants and have to spend billions of dollars to comply with a series of pending Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Who's going to pay for that? Consumers.
When anti-science progressives succeeded in driving nuclear power out of America, the use of coal spiked, along with resulting emissions. Now the EPA wants to regulate the emissions but the downside to a heavy-handed approach when there is no reasonable alternative is that it is an unfair restriction of supply. Rich people are still going to have power regardless of cost but poor people will be unfairly impacted.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said, "Let me be clear, it’s decisions like the one made by AEP today that demonstrate the urgent need to rein in government agencies like the EPA, preventing them from overstepping their bounds and imposing regulations that not only cost us good American jobs, but hurt our economy."
The EPA responded it's for public health. When a bloated, remote government bureaucracy falls back on the "it's for the kids" argument, reach for your wallet because the science has already been stolen.
