Obama Energy Secretary Promises “Massive” Coal Plant Closures

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 10, 2011

Image: Department of Energy

Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu has launched the next phase of the White House’s publicly stated agenda to bankrupt the coal industry via EPA regulations after announcing the prospect of “massive” coal plant closures even as Texas and other states suffer rolling blackouts as a result of maxed-out power plants that cannot cope with demand.

The Obama administration’s strict enforcement of draconian EPA regulations has led to new clean-burning coal-fired plants being mothballed and other existing ones being shut down, which has in turn led to Texas and other states becoming energy-dependent, leading to shortages and blackouts exacerbated by freezing temperatures.

Despite White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer’s brazen lie in claiming that the blackouts are solely a result of “mechanical failures,” the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the agency that oversees the state’s power, confirmed this morning that the threat of blackouts was ongoing as a result of a “maxed out grid”.

This “maxed out grid” is a consequence of federally enforced EPA restrictions that have led to the delay, mothballing and closing down of coal-fired plants. In Texas, approval for the much-needed Las Brisas Energy Center has been delayed for 3 years as a result of EPA meddling in Texas’ energy policy.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

A federal court ruling last month gave the EPA permission to proceed with greenhouse gas regulation in Texas, temporarily superseding Texas’ non-compliance with the new regulations which came into force on January 2. The White House’s claim that EPA regulations are not currently affecting Texas is a complete fabrication.

Now White House Energy Secretary Steven Chu has made it clear that “massive” amounts of coal-fired plants in the United States will be closed down over the next five to eight years.

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“The EIA ( Energy Information Administration) predicts plants with 7.7 gigawatts of capacity will close by 2018. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based The Brattle Group, a consulting firm, said in December that 50 to 65 gigawatts of capacity may be closed by 2020 because of environmental regulations. Analysts at Zurich-based bank Credit Suisse Group AG said in September that about 60 gigawatts of coal capacity may be retired,” reports Newsmax.

“We’re going to see massive retirements within the next five, eight years,” Chu said at a renewable-energy conference in Washington yesterday.

“Smaller, older units” that burn coal “won’t be economic under new clean air standards,” said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the Washington-based National Mining Association.

This means that the larger transnational energy companies with close Obama administration ties like General Electric, who have been given waivers for the EPA carbon restrictions, will see their competition eliminated and be given free reign to jack up prices even further by creating artificial scarcity.

Americans will be made to foot the bill as part of Obama’s publicly stated agenda to bankrupt the coal industry in the move towards a “green economy,” which has little to do with the environment and everything to do with hollowing out America’s industrial base so that the country may be more easily swallowed up by the “post-industrial revolution” that remains the goal of the global elite.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.

This article was posted: Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 1:59 pm

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