New EPA Regulations to Improve the Environment Tank the Economy

By Rebecca DiFede
America’s energy sector once again comes under attack from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This time, not only will utility companies feel the backlash of the EPA’s new regulations, energy consumers will as well.

Utility giant American Electric Power (AEP) announced that it was going to have to shut down five plants and spend upwards of $8 billion by 2014 in order to comply with the EPA’s new proposed rules for the limiting of toxic emissions and waste, including mercury.

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government (ALG), reacted to the newly proposed rules, saying, “This is just one more example of the Obama Administration's war on the U.S. economy and their total disregard for the people who are thrown out of work due to their extremist policies.”

Since the power plants are subject to standards of maintenance as mandated by the EPA, AEP is obligated to conform to these outrageous policies, lest they fail to pass the safety tests (also created and overseen by the EPA), which would cause them to have to shut down entirely. This would cost even more jobs and more money, as well as deprive countless homes of adequate access to power.

The EPA claims its intentions are good and that it only is concerned about the health and safety of the public, but one has to wonder then why it would jeopardize the energy sector with such heavy and abrasive rules that force major electricity suppliers such as AEP to fall to its knees.
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