The Environmental Protection Agency issed new standards for coal burning power plants in 28 states. The new rules, issued Thursday, will cut smokestack emissions reducing soot, smog, and acid rain.
The EPA says the new regulations will cost utilities less than $1 billion a year. According to the New York Times, the EPS also says the cleaner air would prevent up to 34,000 premature deaths, 15,000 nonfatal heart attacks, and hundreds of thousands of cases of asthma every year.
But not everybody likes the idea. Virginia Congressman Morgan Griffith said in a statement, "The EPA is back at it again. More overreaching regulations, more jobs lost...All indications are that they will hurt jobs in Southwest Virginia." He goes on to say, "These rules will cause electric rates to increase significantly, thus making it harder to do business and create jobs."
The new regulations are also a concern of Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of Alpha Natural Resources. He reiterates the same concerns about electricity rates going up, saying they could rise by 25 percent.
Crutchfield says, "I think it's a grave concern to our nation because coal still fuels nearly half the electricity in the United States and its one of the most abundant affordable and reliable sources of electricity and what are we going to replace it with."
Crutchfield says Alpha Natural will be okay because they have enough international coal exports. But its his employees he worries about.
EPA says the new regulations on coal burning power plants won't go into effect until the beginnina of 2012.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement