Democratic Senator: Environmental Protection Agency Out of Control

True to his word, for once, obama and his thugs are making every effort to bankrupt the coal industry. The thing is though, there is nothing to replace the energy produced by the coal fired plants. It takes about a thousand years to permit and build a nuclear powered plant, and after the mess in Japan, everyone has cold feet about them. So basically, coal fired plants will shut down and there will be nothing to pick up the slack. Electricity prices will go through the roof, hundreds of jobs will be lost and our Country will slip further into the economic mess we are currently drowning in.

Everyday that this administration is in power, we inch closer to torches and pitchforks. It's fairly easy to ignore the destructive actions of this gang of thugs until it affects you. But what the apathetic in this Country need to understand, if their actions affect one of us the affect all of us.

Those higher energy bills will affect millions of people. The loss of hundreds of jobs will hurt entire communities. There seems to be no end to the ways obama can screw us over...

By Susan Jones - CNSNews

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, the former governor of coal-producing West Virginia, is blasting the Obama administration for using the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate coal-fueled power plants out of business.

On Thursday, American Electric Power company announced that to comply with a series of EPA regulations, it will close five coal-fired plants -- three in West Virginia and one each in Ohio and Virginia -- at a net cost of 600 jobs.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states.

"We have worked for months to develop a compliance plan that will mitigate the impact of these rules for our customers and preserve jobs, but because of the unrealistic compliance timelines in the EPA proposals, we will have to prematurely shut down nearly 25 percent of our current coal-fueled generating capacity, cut hundreds of good power plant jobs, and invest billions of dollars in capital to retire, retrofit and replace coal-fueled power plants," said AEP Chairman and CEO Michael G. Morris.

"The sudden increase in electricity rates and impacts on state economies will be significant at a time when people and states are still struggling,” he added.

The plant closures in West Virginia alone will result in 242 lost jobs -- "and that's simply wrong," Manchin 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.

Read the rest at the link above...