We must speak up on EPA regulations

This past Wednesday, I wrote about the Environment Protection Agency's new regulations for this year and specifically about the new regulations that govern coal-fired utility plants such as the one here in Sikeston.

If fully implemented, these new regulations will hit you - all Sikeston residents, businesses and industry - squarely in your pocketbook.

And the financial impact will be much more than mere pocket change.

Since 1978, Sikeston residents have enjoyed some of the more inexpensive utility rates in the state of Missouri. And that wasn't by accident.

Some visionary leaders in this community long ago saw the advantages of owning our own power plant and even beyond that, they saw the wisdom of building a power plant large enough to sell energy to other communities.

Over the years, a dozen or so other communities in Missouri have purchased much of their energy needs through our plant. Their purchases have helped to keep rates lower here.

And let's address the "pollution" that coal-fired plants put into the atmosphere.

Well, the facts are plain and simple. There are much older plants - primarily in the rust belt or the north and east - that were built many years ago and have never made the costly investment to upgrade and remove those pollutants.

Not Sikeston.

From the very beginning - with the installation of an expensive but effective scrubber system - the Sikeston plant gets excellent marks from each and every agency that monitors plant output and pollution.

For starters, let's use common sense. Do you honestly think that those visionaries who dreamed of this plant would be so reckless to put pollutants into their own community?

But the Obama administration and the environmental wackos who are currently in control want an end to all coal-fired plants.

Since they lack the power to outlaw these plants, their aim is to burden them with excessive regulations and effectively put them in a financial position that is non-competitive.

Regardless of their method, the plan remains the same.

And we are the target, let there be no doubt.

Each of us should make some effort to voice our concerns over these new regulations and the more than a hundred new regulations coming next year.

We must contact our Congressional delegations with emphasis on Sen. Claire McCaskill and explain that we are not part of the problem, we are part of the solution.

We can complain all day long about the runaway progressive agenda of this administration.

But this issue hits home more than you can imagine.

And it is a virtual certainty if we remain silent.

Michael Jensen

Contact information:

Rep. Jason Smith, 2502 Tanner Dr., Suite 205, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63703, Telephone: 202-225-4404. Fax 202-226-6326 or E-mail: www.house.gov/jasonsmith