Blue States Get Whacked. You're Next!

There IS a problem with natural gas addiction, as several blue states have found.

Electricity prices in New England have been four to eight times higher than normal in the last few weeks, as the region’s extreme reliance on natural gas for power supplies has collided with a surge in demand for heating....

...Many plants that ran on coal or oil have been shuttered, and the few that remain cannot be put into service quickly enough to meet spikes in demand....

New England is about 52% natgas.  This is a NYT article, so the reason(s) for coal-plant shutdowns are not mentioned.

But there IS this:

Remember back during the 2008 presidential campaign when Barack Obama promised to bankrupt anyone who wanted to build a coal-fired power plant and essentially shut down the coal industry?

...he is still pursuing this plan. Now, he’s doing it via EPA regulations known as New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)– which amount to a “cap” without the “trade.”

NSPS rules are draconian and apply to new plants.  But there are plenty of EPA and State regs already in existence which have caused the "shuttering" of 130 plants nationally, not to mention long-term planning of the utilities which recognized that their coal plants would not conform to NSPS or its predecessors.

You don't build a gen-plant in a week, ya'know.

And with NSPS, things will get worse.

...America will have a less diversified energy supply that is much more reliant on natural gas...Unemployment in coal country, already poor, is going to spike, hard.  (Correction:  it's not "unemployment".  It's "freedom to pursue art history studies.")

According to an analysis by NERA Economic Consulting for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), NSPS could result in electricity rates spiking by between $13 billion and $17 billion per year, causing double digit electricity rate spikes in anywhere from 13 to 29 states. It will massively increase dependency on natural gas, which is subject to supply issues that coal is not. It could also cost over 200,000 jobs if implemented as currently drafted.

...Kudos to President Obama for figuring out how to do whatever he wants without the need for that annoying need for legislation....

And for making the USA part of the Third World!!