To meet new, more rigorous EPA standards the Michigan electric utility Detroit Edison will have to shut down 10 of its coal-burning power plants over the next four years.

In a summer that provided record breaking heat and plenty of stormy weather around the country a Detroit Edison executive noted that the utility’s ability to prevent blackouts will be strained.

Despite the heat this year Detroit Edison has produced 26 percent more energy than demand requires.  To date Detroit Edison has been extremely well-equipped to overcome strain on the power grid. As a result Michiganders suffering from this summer’s extraordinary heat have been free to let their air conditioners run cooler, longer, and cheaper.

Once Detroit Edison shuts down 10 power-plants plants, instead of putting them through a very expensive renovation process to meet overly-strict new EPA standards, the 26 percent surplus will shrink to a mere six percent surplus, well below the average industry-wide energy reserve of 12 percent.

Because DTE, Detroit Edison’s parent utility company doesn’t want the excess production capacity to drop to such a low level it plans to replace the shuttered plants-to-be with natural gas plants, as they comply with current EPA standards.  Still, these plants will be more expensive to run, placing a burden on consumers across the board. Business owners and manufacturers will have their profit margins reduced and the handicapped and elderly many of which may no longer be able to afford air conditioning and/or other even more vital electronic services.

Such is life in today’s era of environmental alarmism, where reducing environmental impact takes precedence over job retention and quality of life, and sadly, even life itself

Radical Environmental Law Pulls the Plug on Nations Most Vulnerable

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