According to Reuters, Mr Obama, the US President, apparent “war on coal” will result in 207 Coal plants to shutter their doors over the next decade or so.
Whether due to environmental regulations or cheap natural gas, these Coal plants will close their doors, resulting in a loss of over 40,000 megawatts of electricity. That's less than 1% of all the electricity used by the country in a year, but because multiple plants are closing in the same location, energy prices for people living within their reach will increase. Not to mention the job losses from closing those plants.
As 207 plants are slated to close, 138 have already shut down since Obama took office in 2009 and began his anti-coal onslaught. If all 207 of those facilities cease operations, it will leave the nation with 439 coal fired plants, a loss of 32% of the nation's coal plants.
Coal currently accounts for about 40% of the nation's energy supply, so losing this many coal plants will be devastating. Renewable energy accounts for only 12% of current consumption, and that percentage isn't growing very quickly.
Mr Dan Kish, Senior Vice President of policy at the Institute for Energy Research, said that these coal plants will have to be replaced with newer, more expensive forms of energy, like renewable source of energy.
Some of the plants are being converted into natural gas plants, but building new power supplies will be costly.
Mr Kish said that “The fact is that with the regulatory flurry that only looks to get worse, people will have to accept that their energy bills will increase. The president mentioned in his statement in 2008.”
Source – Washington Examiner
Leave a Reply