U.S. will shut down large numbers of thermal power

In the next 18 months, the US Environmental Protection Agency will finalize a series of new regulations to control coal-fired power plant pollution. Mercury, smoke, ozone, greenhouse gas, water intake, coal ash will all be controlled. Therefore, some lawmakers naturally objected to this. The industry organizations, such as the Edison Electric Power Research Institute and the US Legislative Exchange Committee, which represent public utilities, called the forthcoming regulations the “The EPA's supervision of train crashes.” They believe that these regulations will allow utilities to spend 129 billion U.S. dollars and force them to phase out one-fifth of their coal-fired capacity. Since 45% of the U.S. electricity is provided by coal-fired power plants, this means higher electricity prices, more frequent power cuts, and layoffs. This is like a doomsday scenario that sounded the alarm to the House of Representatives. They are all scrambling to block the promulgation of these measures. Environmental groups refute that these regulations will bring great public health benefits, and public utilities exaggerate the expenditures brought about by these mitigation regulations.