POTUS who “opposes regulatory burden” about to create emergency condition in Texas

We have the quote locked in on the White House web site, veritably written in stone.

At the same time, I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas will certainly be glad to hear that. You see, they’ve been getting worried lately that if certain federal regulations go into effect, they could be in some serious trouble. Somebody should drop them a line and let them know they have nothing to fear, because they still seem to think the president is about to send them up the river without a paddle.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the state’s power grid, said in a report today that a new federal environmental regulation would reduce generating capacity and put the grid “at increasing risk of emergency events,” including rotating power outages.

The Jan. 1 implementation date for the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, designed to curb air pollution from power plants, leaves ERCOT with “an extremely truncated period” in which to assess the impact of the rule and “no realistic opportunity to take steps that could even partially offset the substantial losses of available operating capacity,” it said.

The report outlined three scenarios, with even the “best-case scenario” expected to result in the loss of an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 megawatts of generating capacity during peak consumption periods, ERCOT said.

“Had this incremental reduction been in place in 2011, ERCOT would have experienced rotating outages during days in August,” the report said.

Pshaw. After the president’s announcement this week about ozone level regulations, clearly Texas has no cloud on their horizon. The president will doubtless roll back those regulations any day now. Or at least right after he finishes his speech next Thursday night.

Unfortunately, nobody has clued in the Environmental Protection Agency on the latest presidential guidelines. When asked about the distress call, they were almost dismissive, saying that Texas “has an ample range of cost-effective emission reductions options” for complying with the rule “without threatening electricity reliability or the continued operation of coal-burning units.”

I hope President Obama finds out about this. These EPA guys are positively going rogue.

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