The Obama administration and the U.S. EPA continued their assault on coal and coal-fired power plants this past week with proposed new rules announced Tuesday that will result in utilities, and their ratepayers to pay an addition $2.8 billion a year in added annual costs by 2014 by the EPA’s own estimation.

The emissions plan is most recent in a string of regulations and legislation that the Obama Administration and the EPA have passed that hampers the use of coal for power generation in this country. Currently coal accounts for almost half of the nation’s electrical generation.

Utilities immediately raised concerns about their ability to meet the new standards by the 2012 deadline, especially if they have to install new technology to meet the standards. The EPA estimates about 180 coal-fired power plants will have to install new technology. Some facilities could wind up being shut down. The agency expects the new rules will increase electricity prices by about two percent annually, estimates industry experts question as potentially low.

A new national survey commissioned by the Institute for Energy Research found that 70 percent of Americans oppose new energy taxes that will drive up domestic energy costs even further.  The survey also finds that the same percentage do not believe such a tax would have a discernible effect on global warming.

“The American people are smarter than the political class in Washington think,” said IER president Thomas Pyle.  “There is no interest in pushing through a radical agenda in the name of global warming and there is no interest on the part of consumers to pay more at the pump for a gallon of gasoline.”

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, voted last month for an amendment by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, that would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. The amendment failed on a 53-47 vote, but the senators who voted to restrain the EPA apparently have strong public opinion on their side.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/poll-70-percent-of-americans-reject-cap-and-trade-98033709.html#ixzz0tC0jRb8g