This is the 2nd post that we’ve done on this topic (…here’s the first one).
I lived for a number of years in a Coal state (West Virginia) and am sympathetic to the plight discussed here. By any measure, the Obama Administration’s targeting of the coal industry seems deliberate. And, by setting arbitrary levels of mercury output, they are virtually begging for the law of “unintended consequences” to rear its head.
A quick quote from Heritage.com:
The EPA is proposing to force power plants to reduce mercury by 90 percent within three years—at an estimated cost of $11 billion annually. A significant number of coal-fired plants will actually exceed the standard—by shutting down altogether. Indeed, grid operators, along with 27 states, are warning that the overly stringent regulations will threaten the reliability of the electricity system and dramatically increase power costs.
Just like candidate Obama promised.
If you get your livelihood or your power from coal plants, President Genius has a message for you: tough.
He didn’t lie, I guess. This is change.
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Two Heads are Better Than One 
Say, ever wonder where the electricity comes from to put onto your Prius?
You mean that it DOESN’T come from Skittle-powered Unicorns, …on treadmills?
And the aftermath will be China and co. buying up cheap coal from the United States to gain an ever greater economic advantage in productivity through improved infrastructure reliability and lowered costs for production and shipping of goods formerly made in the United States by U.S. workers.
Our economy relies heavily on fossil fuels to produce items that ultimately compete with similar products on the open market. The higher the fuel costs, the higher the cost of production, storage and shipping the product for sale. When other countries who produce the same products can do so for less, U.S. industries are undercut. Add to that expensive regulation and forced minimum wage costs that are artificially higher than a true free market economy would justify and it should be clear to anyone with a brain that functions on a marginal level why the U.S. is losing jobs and industries to overseas bases which afford less costly manufacturing and production.
The U.S. was always able to compete because the freedom afforded business owners and entities allowed them to work with minimal interference and costs. That is no longer the case and the country is now experiencing conditions similar to those imposed in regulation heavy countries such as the Soviet Union and cold war China.
On the other hand, as Russia and China have opened up to accepting various forms of mixed economy capitalism, they have become wealthier, vastly more productive and wealthier than they were just two decades ago.
If the U.S. is to compete, we need a government that is willing to shed regulatory advocates and lobbiests and return to a more loosely regulatated and production oriented industrial society that can take full advantage of technological breakthroughs in a way that amplifies productivty and lowering costs than the politically correct, but impractical direction we are currently following.
Just my two cents, for whatever they are worth to your readers.
Your comments are always appreciated, Rick! And you’re right, of course: we’re getting killed by our own hand.
Government regs, combined with artificially high wages and expenses, are to blame.
If we allow the market to figure out what the costs are, vs. meddling with them in infinite ways, the costs seek their own level: no meddling required. Goods get produced and find their buyer. Businesses see what the market wants/needs, and jobs are produced as an OUTGROWTH of that, not vice-versa.
23 years in business taught me a few things, and one of them is real easy: the quickest way for me to be successful is to have the government get out of my way. ‘Cause when they stick their nose into my business, the only ones who benefit from that interference is the government itself.
Thanks, as always, for the comments, partner. Glad to have you….
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