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Clash of Titans, EPA Wrecks the Electricity Grid

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Feds Step In, Things Get Much Worse

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Part II

Things may have quieted down in Michigan after Proposal 3’s demise in 2012, but President Obama’s EPA were furiously developing their ‘War on Coal’ to dramatically increase the cost reduce pollution of electricity generation. The Mercury and Air Toxics (MATs, also known as MACT) rule requires scrubbers on all coal-fired power plants nationally, costing something north of $ 1 million per steam boiler. The Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) requires Michigan coal-fired power plants to reduce their thermal efficiency during peak summertime generating periods to reduce oxides of nitrogen at a yet to be determined cost.

In 2014, EPA’s ‘Cooling Water Intake Structures’ rule finally went into effect after a decade of legal wrangling, requiring that Michigan’s electrical utilities take some very expensive steps over 8 years to protect the Great Lakes’ beloved zebra mussel and round goby populations.

At the end of 2014, EPA imposed newly restrictive rules on the disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs), commonly known as coal ash, from coal-fired power plants. Almost unique in the history of Federal regulation, EPA admitted in their final CCR rule that it had a negative cost-benefit ratio. Fly ash, the most abundant CCR, is actually a remedy for the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) which causes premature failure of many MDoT concrete structures. So EPA managed to simultaneously increase Michigan’s cost of electricity generation and reduce the lifespan of our roads and bridges. An Obama ‘two fer’.

EPA expects to finalize its ‘Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category’ in September 2015. Known by the acronyms SEEG or ELG, these rules will change the way all electrical power stations handle cooling, process, and steam condensate water. These rules cover all steam powered turbine operations, but will most severely affect coal-fired power stations whose MATs required scrubbers and CCR required ash handling systems will generate a lot of waste water.

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Depopulating The Upper Peninsula

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energyinfographicjpg-01Under the new EPA rules that our congress (incl Dan Benishek) has ALLOWED to be developed, the probability of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula being vacated is elevated.

This is no hype.

The upper peninsula is served primarily by Coal fired electrical generation.  Replacing that is cost prohibitive, and efforts to upgrade existing service has already begun, yet fails to meet the now even more stringent regulatory efforts by the Obama administration.

With even the cleanest combustion, the product is CO2 and water vapor.  Both are greenhouse gasses, but one is being used as a lever by those who wish to get complete control over the population; where it lives, what it eats, and how it heals itself, etc..

The failure of Congress to remove funding for the EPA has allowed the poser in chief to continue ratcheting up the difficulty level for Americans to live without the threat of government shutting them down.  This is not good policy, but rather a means to an end for an ideological presidency.

We have little time left.  Start getting involved

 

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