Congress Must End Ill-advised Clean Power Plan
A review of America’s energy policy-making history is instructive:
During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the nation enacted (constitutionally and lawfully) the Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act to force installations burning relatively clean gas and oil to convert to coal. The folly of this eventually became clear and PIFUA was repealed nine years later with little difficulty and fanfare (constitutionally and lawfully).
Later the nation enacted (constitutionally and lawfully) the ethanol program to replace gasoline with “clean” biofuel. Predictably, this resulted in stunning environmental damage to land and waterways as well as economic and humanitarian misery to those most poor. It resulted in increases in some types of air pollution and arguably greenhouse gas emissions as well. This folly is now so obvious that even some Democratic congressmen and environmental groups are beginning a movement to roll back the ethanol mandate (constitutionally and lawfully). This will be difficult because powerful constituencies have developed around ethanol.
Today the Environmental Protection Agency is advancing (unconstitutionally and unlawfully) the misnamed Clean Power Plan to drive fossil fuel power plants out of existence to “fight global warming.” Although under a stay order by the Supreme Court, EPA is proceeding contemptuously anyhow. Once EPA’s damage to America’s electricity supplies becomes obvious, the road back will be long and painful.
Paradoxically, all this would have no measurable effect on Earth’s temperatures while damage to the environment and human health from wind farms mounts.
Congress (constitutionally and lawfully) must end the CPP folly immediately.
James M. Policelli
Plainfield Township
See the article here.
- On August 15, 2016