Obama attempts to control global coal-burning plants

Alex Pierson

President Obama is at it once again,  he is trying to control the coal-burning plants globally.  His goal is to reduce carbon emissions from these factories. It is a bad idea for Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to interfere with the coal burning industry.

The original force behind the War on Coal was the EPA.  They wanted to set strict regulations for the coal burning plants in the Unites States.  Coal burning plants are the number one contributor to carbon emissions in the United States.  The products from coal combustion are fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag and Flue Gas Desulflurization. The new regulations would restrict new power plants to only emit 11,000 pounds of carbon per megawatt hour; which would cost the companies fortunes and would effectively stop new coal burning plants from being built.

America has a capitalist economy where businesses should be able to make profit and use their resources without government interference. The Unites States is not a socialist economy where the government can control everything, even though it is beginning to look that way.

The government does not have the right to control these companies.  Companies may be pumping poisonous gas into the air but that is not illegal so the government should not be able to interfere.  That is only in the U.S, Obama wants to try to regulate coal burning facilities globally as well.  He wants to try and control the output of emissions globally to reduce global warming and he is trying to get other countries such as China and India on board.

This brings up the debate about global warming and how the gasses are contributing to it.  It has been proven that the world has been getting warmer, though not by much.  There are extremes on each side of the debate about whether it matters or not and what the effects will be.  There are people who still deny global warming and there are the people who think the ice caps are going to melt and the world will flood.  At this point we might have to just wait and see.

Global warming is true but it is not as big of a threat as many people believe.  The main concern people have with it is that it is going to interfere with the  the ecosystem and will lead to the extinction of certain animals such as the polar bear.  Global warming may also affect the intensity of tropical storms because of the increased amount of unfrozen water.

There may be an issue with global warming and even if people are causing it, big businesses do not care, and they should not have to care.  As of now it is not an immediate issue and their only goal is to make money, so why should they have to spend more money to produce the same amount of energy? The government should not be able to interfere with businesses in this fashion because they are not committing any crimes. Obama needs to stop interfering with the coal burning factories and private industry.