Texas' power provider closing units over EPA rule

The largest power generator in Texas said Monday that unless its lawsuits prevent a new EPA rule from taking effect early next year, it will close a large section of one power plant, which could lead to rolling power outages in the summer.

Dallas-based Luminant filed one federal lawsuit Monday to remove Texas from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which is to take effect Jan. 1. The company plans to file another suit later this week to try to block the rule completely, Luminant spokesman Allan Koenig said.

The rule requires Texas and 26 other states to reduce smokestack pollution causing smog and soot in downwind states - where it combines with other contaminants, making it impossible for those states to meet air quality standards. The new rule replaces a 2005 Bush administration proposal that a federal court rejected.

Under the EPA's initial proposal, Texas' power plants were required to address only summertime smog-forming pollution. But in July, the EPA announced Texas must reduce sulfur dioxide, responsible for acid rain and soot, and nitrogen oxides, which contribute to both smog and soot.

The only way Luminant can comply is by shutting down two of three units at one plant and making other changes, which will eliminate 500 jobs and reduce generating capacity by 1,300 megawatts, Koenig said. The company has already reduced emissions with some of its previous projects, he said.

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Samuel Adams, 1772

Via Survival

"It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property.

If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave."

Did I Just See Sanity? (Cain)

The Market Ticker
VERBATIM POST
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Well blow me down.

Herman Cain, running for President (R), said the following:

The plan begins with restructuring the tax code to include the broadest possible base at the lowest possible rate. The elements are:

• A 9% corporate flat tax. Businesses would deduct purchases from other businesses and all capital investment. The resulting gross income is taxed at 9%.

• A 9% personal flat tax. Individuals would deduct charitable contributions, then pay 9% on the rest of their income. Capital gains are excluded.

• A 9% national sales tax. This levy would be placed on the consumption of all new goods. Used goods purchased would be excluded.

Ok, a hybrid tax plan. Eh, I might be able to support that. But that's not news.

THIS is news:

But these policies must be coupled with sound money. A dollar must be worth the same tomorrow as it is today.

Wait a second... you mean this law will be given teeth?

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy's long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.

You make that underlined clause the centerpiece of the campaign, including an explicit promise to criminalize currency debasement (that is, inflation) and you've got my vote.

I suggest that the penalty be identical to that of the original Currency Act (hanging, preferably on The Mall at high noon.)

AMEN!