Coal Slotted to Die in America Tomorrow: RIP

Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin reports that the Obama's administration has found other ways to skin the global warming cat after Congress refused to cap carbon emissions. It is poised to issue tomorrow strict new emissions restrictions that will ban any new power plants that emit more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced compared to the current 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt. The story goes:

The move could end the construction of new conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States…Industry officials and environmentalists said in interviews that the rule, which comes on the heels of tough new requirements that the Obama administration imposed on mercury emissions and cross-state pollution from utilities within the past year, dooms any proposal to build a new coal-fired plant that does not have costly carbon controls.

"This standard effectively bans new coal plants," said Joseph Stanko, who heads government relations at the law firm Hunton and Williams and represents several utility companies…."

The proposal does not cover existing plants, although utility companies have announced that they plan to shut down more than 100 boilers, representing more than 40 gigawatts of capacity — nearly 13 percent of the nation's coal-fired electricity — rather than upgrade them with pollution-control technology.

Coal supplies 40% of electricity in America, hardly surprising since this country has the largest recoverable coal reserves in the world. It is regarded as the Saudi Arabia of coal, having enough reserves to meet 250-plus years of domestic demand.

So much for President Obama's "All of the Above" energy strategy.