Dear Editor:
In your story on the EPA and Utah’s haze plan, it was interesting to learn from PacifiCorp spokesperson David Eskelsen that the EPA’s implementation plan would cost consumers another $700 million for electricity, while the state’s plan reduces haze at a lower cost (“EPA says it will revisit Utah’s haze plan,” July 27-Aug. 3, 2017 Moab Sun News). Hopefully, businesses and homes in Utah will enjoy affordable utility prices for years, since coal is the source of 81 percent of electricity in your state.
I welcome EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s commitment to giving the states more say and that the EPA will now view the states as partners.
Tragically, there is little hope for the appointment of a coal-friendly, top environmental bureaucrat in Canada. The government of Canada has recently mandated the phase out of coal-generated electricity, even though many provinces rely on coal.
In my home province of Ontario, 25 percent of our electricity used to come from coal. But coal generation was banned, and electricity rates soared by over 300 percent, killing thousands of factory jobs.
To make matters worse, Prime Minister Trudeau plans to impose a national carbon tax, which will hike the cost of everything in Canada, from groceries to gasoline. Americans can be thankful your federal government is not going in a similar direction.
