Obama’s EPA Sets Out to Destroy US Factories With Boilers; Affecting Millions of US Jobs (Updated)

Thousands of power plants, manufacturing plants, paper mills, refineries, chemical plants, schools and hospitals use boilers at their facilities. Literally millions of jobs rely on affordable energy from these facilities, and those jobs are put at risk if those boilers can no longer be installed and run in a cost effective manner.


Burnham’s Independence Series gas-fired boiler

The Wall Street Journal reported:

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it would delay issuing final regulations aimed at cutting pollution from factory boilers until April 2012, amid pressure from industry groups and lawmakers.

The EPA decision came just days after a top EPA official publicly touted the health and economic benefits of a separate but similar rule to control mercury emissions from aging coal-fired power plants.

The EPA faces increasing pressure from Congress and business groups to slow down a broad regulatory agenda, including proposals to curb carbon dioxide emissions using the Clean Air Act and several rules aimed at clamping down on emissions from coal-burning power plants.

The boiler rules were the target of a House bill introduced by four Republicans and four Democrats Wednesday that would give the agency 15 months to finalize the boiler rules and allow factories at least five years to comply.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said stronger controls on emissions of toxic substances such as mercury from boilers would yield a significant improvement to public health.

Opposition to the boiler rules, which would affect paper mills, refineries, chemical factories and other facilities, has been vigorous. The regulations face headwinds from an array of industry groups, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to representatives of cement makers and biofuel refineries, many of which have lobbied for a delay.

A federal court has ordered the EPA to implement the boiler standards, but the agency has said it needed more time for public input. This latest delay would push the deadline for compliance to 2015 from 2014.

“This is the best approach to put in place technically and legally sound standards that will bring significant health benefits to the American public,” the agency said Friday.

The EPA’s delay has frustrated environmental and public-health groups, which cite evidence that the rules would save lives and avert thousands of heart and asthma attacks.

Industry, on the other hand, has said that the rules would be extremely costly and difficult to implement.

The EPA claims their latest job-killing regulations will prevent thousands of heart and asthma attacks. Hogwash. This is about as honest as the global warming junk science curriculum that the leftists push on children in Maryland. Boilers have been around since the 19th century, are necessary for industry and commerce, and are already highly regulated. This is just another attempt by the American left to control and destroy American industry.

UPDATE: Matt O. from Washington sent this in:

Things are fairly complicated regarding the boiler rule business. I”m mainly writing to tell you that it isn’t about natural-gas fueled boilers (as in the photo)— they burn clean— but is mainly about coal and the new thing, “biomass”.

Obama and the EPA are pushing biomass burning as a CO2, global warming, control measure. However, the only reason why industry is involved with new projects involving biomass used to produce electricity is because of the subsidies. Here in Washington State utilities are required to buy a certain amount of their power from “renewable” sources. So the plan is to collect what’s left over at clearcuts of the forest and demolition wood and burn that— just to get the subsidy.

My point: if you’re on the side of lax rules for emissions you’re with the industrial crooks who want the subsidy.

Of course, it makes perfect sense that the libs have somehow inserted their costly green agenda into the boiler business.
Thanks Matt.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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Thanks for sharing!