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MAX A. MEEK, CEO AND GENERAL MANAGER F A Dollar for a Dime?


T e Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their supporters are trying to limit power production and rid our energy mix of coal. T ey have already succeeded somewhat. T eir regulations on this most-aff ordable power generation fuel source have already shut down 15 gigawatts of coal capacity in the United States since 2012. T at equates to approximately 1.5 million homes required to fi nd an alternative (and more expensive) fuel source to power their everyday basic needs. Dr. S. Julio Friedmann, Department of Energy


(DOE) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal, testifi ed before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in February that requiring carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) would increase wholesale electricity prices 70 to 80 percent on coal plants with fi rst generation CCS technology and 40 percent on plants with second generation CCS technology. Friedmann said, "It is, in fact, a substantial


percentage increase in the cost of electricity, but in part that is because the current price of coal is so low."


Higher prices for power seem to be just what the


DOE and EPA are after. T ey want us to pay $1 for what a dime can provide today. If they want to reduce energy consumption, this tactic will defi nitely get it done. Who could aff ord it, especially when it is 5 or 105 degrees outside? Problem is, we won't be able to aff ord anything—food, clothing, a night out. What is going to happen to the milk farm or the fruit growers trying to keep the frost off the citrus fruits? What


about the small auto garage with their power tools or the sewing machine repair shop? Businesses will be forced to close their doors and turn off the lights. Jobs will be lost.


Clean coal is a fantastic goal—but that is all it


is right now. T e technology does not exist yet to put CCS in production. T rough the Cooperative Research Network, co-ops are researching technologies to reduce emissions, including carbon dioxide, from fossil fuel power generation. In the mean time, the EPA regulations will force the retirement of more aff ordable coal-powered generation plants and leave our members with no option but to purchase high-priced natural gas- generated power. Wind doesn't always blow and turbines freeze up


(as we know from this past winter). Hydro-power is hard to come by in a drought. Natural gas is diffi cult to store and must be piped in to where it is needed. It is not a fuel utilities can buy and hold, unlike coal. Coal is the only fuel we can stock pile in bulk to ensure reserves are at optimum levels and available the moment we need it. OEC and electric co-ops across the nation are


advocating for an "all-of-the-above" strategy. We cannot aff ord to leave one option off the table— especially when that option is by far the most aff ordable. Coal needs to be in our energy mix. Please go to www.Action.coop and make your


voice heard. Join co-op members from across the country in telling the EPA, "America needs a common sense solution."


May 2014 News Magazine 3


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