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EPA proposals jeopardize affordable power supplies

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed regulations for new coal-fired power plants that could put reliable and affordable electric supplies in jeopardy.

Jo Ann Emerson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association says these proposals would essentially take coal-fired electricity generation out of the mix of options available to the electric grid.  “The EPA’s regulations would Number 1 – require the building of any new coal-fired power plants to utilize technology that doesn’t exist commercially today,” she says.  “In essence it says no more coal-fired power plants.”

That, is just EPA’s first proposal.  Emerson tells Brownfield they’re expecting another proposal in early June that would target coal-fired plants already in existence.  All of us will be subject to these new targets,” she says.  “It will be done on a state-by-state basis.  For coal-fired power plants that exist today, it could be that it is too expensive to retrofit them to meet the targets set for them by the EPA.  If that is the case, the utility may decide to close that power plant down.”

Which, could put added pressure on Rural America.  “The communities that we serve in Rural America are generally poorer,” she says.  “They are around 11 percent poorer than the national average.  We have a lot of senior citizens living on fixed incomes and we represent all of the persistent poverty counties in the United States.”

If the proposed regulations are allowed, she says it is expected electric bills could rise by around 20 percent to as much as 50 percent in areas (like Indiana and Missouri) that are more dependent coal-fired electricity.