Coal, we don't need no stink'n coal

It is now, my firm belief that this Administration will not rest until we are all living in caves wearing bearskins and using flint knives. Another, and possibly mortal, blow to our ever increasing energy crisis from the EPA. The One has now decided to not only put hundreds of thousand energy workers off the job, but also make rolling blackouts in the mid-west an absolute certainty. This from The New York Post (emphasis mine):

Start with a proposed regulation under the Clean Air Act that's set to be finalized in November. The Utility MACT ("Maximum Achievable Control Technology") rule seeks to cut US power plants' emissions of mercury from 29 tons a year to just five. Yet EPA itself estimates that cutting even as much as 41 tons out of total emissions of 105 tons "is unlikely to substantially affect total risk."

Let me say that again. The EPA itself (not a crazed right-wing climate-change-denier-group the, freaking agency itself) said that cutting these emission won't do a damn thing! SO WHY DO IT? So:

For zero benefit, the Utility MACT is one of the most expensive federal regulations ever. In comments submitted to the EPA, Unions for Jobs and the Environment, an alliance of unions representing more than 3.2 million workers, estimated that this needless regulation
would jeopardize 251,000 jobs. 

Oh, that's why, so we could drive unemployment up to 10%. Wait, say what? It is evident that the EPA has turned into an out of control far left-wing activist agency, which thinks that their time has finally come to show those big oil and coal companies who's boss. But wait it gets better, and by better I mean worse:

Then there's EPA's out-of-the-blue ruling last month, ordering Texas to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide by 47 percent. This, when the draft version of the Cross State Air Pollution Rule had exempted the state entirely. The excuse for the change? A supposed need to slightly reduce emissions as monitored 500 miles away in Madison County, Ill. -- a locale that meets the EPA air-quality standards in question.

And the EPA only gave Texas just six months to comply -- when it takes three years to build the necessary controls.

 

In order for Texas to comply with this draconian nonsense, they will have to effectively shut down coal burning plants with literally nothing to replace them with. So, that means rationing of service just like in North Korea. Oh, and by the way there's another 15,000 new unemployed workers. Thanks Barry.

I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist (well maybe I do), but this looks like payback for Texas making The One look bad. Texas, if you will remember, was responsible for add half of all new jobs in the country over the last years by NOT practicing the government approved Keynesian eco model. That, and while the U.S.'s credit rating is downgraded, Texas' is upgraded. I'm not say'n, I'm just say'n.

But what about the coal miners. Hell their union right? They should be safe. Nah, they're screwed too. You see there are Unions and then there are unions. Coal miners fall into the latter:

The EPA is also attacking coal mining, by (for example) trying to stop the technique known as mountaintop removal. Endless environmentalist lawsuits have lost in the courts, but the Obama EPA now claims that salt runoff from the process violates the Clean Water Act because it harms a short-lived insect (not an endangered species) -- and has proposed a rule that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson concedes would effectively outlaw an industry that employs more than 15,000 miners in Appalachia. 

Not satisfied to just put a company out of business, hell no, Overlord Lisa Jackson will put an entire industry out of business. Guys where does this nonsense stop? You have to realize that Obama was not kidding when he said to the San Francisco Examiner that he wanted to "bankrupt" the coal industry (at least he kept one campaign promise). I have no doubt that in his delusional world-view killing coal and oil is necessary. Once these pesky folks are out of the way, He can get on to the more noble business of creating and using, so called 'Green' power. As if it will suddenly become a viable resource. Sorry Barry, to replace the power that your policies are eliminating would require a wind farm the size, well, of Texas.

Look, I don't mind the thought of alternative energy sources but you can't force it on people when it is not even close to being viable . We've been promised solar and wind power since Carter. It's just not happening folks. And until it does we have to have coal and oil if we expect to grow the economy.

You could overtly try to mess up the country's energy policy more than these cretins and not done a better job.