Increasing federal rules unwelcomed

This week - on the eve of Thanksgiving - the Obama administration released over 3,400 new federal regulations on everything from coal-fired power plants to massive nutritional labeling for fast food restaurants.

This ongoing federal overreach, according to the feds, is an attempt to improve our lives, our environment and the growing concern over obesity.

But instead of improving our lives, these new regulations will simply cost Americans more money and put more power into the hands of a growing central government.

The new regulations on power plants alone will potentially up electric costs by as much as 27 percent for coal-fired customers like Sikeston.

Rest assured, some of these regulations will be headed to the courts and hopefully, the outcome will be less harmful than they look today.

The new regulations on nutrition are a prime example of the federal government believing they know better than we on how to conduct our lives.

Under the new rules, establishments that sell prepared foods and have 20 or more locations must now post calorie and nutrition content labeling on all of their food.

Though designed to give more information to consumers, the end result will be higher costs for consumers.

But then again, that is the true purpose in the first place.

This new calorie content labeling will be in effect for "chain restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, pizza delivery stores, movie theaters, amusement parks and any other locations that are part of a larger chain and serve prepared foods."

Even though the feds acknowledge that the positive impact from this additional labeling will be small, it is surely a formula for adding costs to the consumer.

It's abundantly obvious that America has a problem with obesity. All statistics put America as the second leading nation of obesity right behind Mexico.

But the greatest problem with obesity is not a lack of information on nutrition. Our obesity problem is an issue of poor choices.

All studies of obesity point to a lack of exercise as the leading culprit and the leading solution.

But this administration believes they should exert greater control on all aspects of our lives from our health care and energy to our school lunch content.

Enough is enough.

The long-brewing obsession with this administration and their fight against coal can spell financial hardships for communities like Sikeston. Our small town has spent literally millions of dollars to assure that the output from our coal-fired power plant meets or exceeds all federal clean air guidelines.

To heap a greater financial burden on our backs is an injustice and the latest in a line of abusive regulations that are just downright wrong.