First of all, the article mentions that about 40% of the nation's coal plants do not have controls for toxic air pollution. That is an unacceptable number in my opinion. I think it should be 0%. Call me an authoritarian, big government type of guy but I think that there should be at least some sort of regulations on them if they are going to be emitting toxic fumes into the air which they most likely are because coal plants and air pollution just go hand in hand. Anyway, the other side of the story is that energy producing companies like American Electric Power will have a cost in the billions of dollars in order to abide by the new regulations that the EPA has set. Those costs would be transferred to consumers. There is the other side of the coin. Consumers will have to pay more for energy and companies will lose profit. However, I think that preserving air quality is more important than that because it is a long term kind of issue.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/04/2530866/can-coal-plants-afford-epas-new.html
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