Jason Smith: War on coal is war on Missouri

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Obama administration's war on coal is a war on Missouri, according to U.S. Rep. Jason Smith of the 8th District. And Sikeston is on the front line.

Smith met with officials from the Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities on Tuesday at the board's offices to discuss U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules that would make coal-fired power plants a thing of the past.

The EPA on Sept. 20 announced proposed greenhouse gas standards for new fossil fuel-fired power plants with separate emissions limits for new natural gas plants and for coal-fired plants. According to Smith, the regulations would impose a de facto ban on new coal plants in the U.S., as the new allowed emissions levels are impossible for coal plants to meet using technology that is available now, effectively eliminating coal as a future fuel source for generating electricity.

"These rules have completely gone unnoticed by the general public," Smith said. "The attention on the news is the Obamacare fiasco."

Coal-fired plants provide well more than 80 percent of the state's energy, Smith said.

Smith said coal is "our greatest natural resource" and the country's largest source of electric power. And, he said, the low cost of electricity generated by coal-fired plants provides the Midwest with a competitive advantage in attracting industry.

Ed Throop, executive director of the board, asked Smith whether eliminating that advantage is one of the motives behind these new rules.

"That's exactly what the case is," Smith said. "It is nothing but a measure brought to kill our competitive edge."

Among those most competitive power producers is the board's Sikeston Power Plant.

Smith said if the Midwest loses the advantage of low-cost electricity from coal plants, companies won't leave Missouri to go to those coastal regions in the U.S. but are most likely to relocate to China or Mexico.

The EPA's rules and regulations resulted in the Doe Run Co. announcing a few days ago the company will close its smelter in Herculaneum, Mo., in December. In addition to it losing 300 jobs, "that was the last lead smelter in the United States," Smith said.

The U.S. soon will need to send lead to China to be smelted and shipped back here so ammunition can be produced, he said.

Over the years, the board has "done everything we can to comply" with previous regulatory mandates, Throop said, including making the transition to using low-sulfur coal and reducing sulfur dioxide emissions.

But BMU is facing a bill of $6 million to meet the EPA's regulations mandating a low NOx burner, and the cost to comply with the new mercury regulations will start with "a couple million," Throop said.

These initial costs will be followed by expenditures that could total up to $25 million to bring the plant into compliance, Throop said.

"That's going to be devastating," he said.

Throop said he soon will face a choice: quadruple electricity rates or shut down the Sikeston Power Plant, putting about 90 people out of work, and start buying power on the open market.

There were senior citizens in Sikeston that felt the additional $3 or $4 a month for the sewer system was a hardship, he said.

"This little town is looking at some big issues," Throop said. "I have a big decision coming in the next year or two."

Landers said coal plants are designed with a 50-year life span and suggested legislation to allow existing coal-fired plants to operate as they are until that life span is reached.

But Smith said he believes it is important to protect not only existing plants but also the use of coal for new plants as coal is one of this country's most abundant natural resources.

"The energy crises will be dictated by our natural resources," he said.

Increasing energy costs will have "a multiplier effect that will destroy our economy" and be "devastating" to constituents, Smith said.

Smith said he is introducing legislation so that any major rule, which would be defined as any rule that may include a significant economic effect, would have to be considered by Congress for final approval.

"That's how we did it at the state level," he said.

Pertinent address:

107 E. Malone Ave., Sikeston, Mo.