Undernews: EPA to Cause Electricity Price Spike

Kudos to the Chicago Tribune for covering an important story that few others will touch:  coming EPA regulations will cause electricity prices to skyrocket.

The headline, "Consumers' electric bills likely to spike as coal plants close" hints at the problem, but the paper immediately fingers the culprit,

"Consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years.  The reason: Pending environmental regulations will make coal-fired generating plants, which produce about half the nation's electricity, more expensive to operate. Many are expected to be shuttered."

"What 'pending environmental regulations'?", you ask?  The Tribune does not quite dig that deep.  "Who is issuing these regulations?"  A careful reader will go away uninformed.

But it does point out that there is more than your electric bill at stake, everything that uses electricity will cost more, including schools.  Not to worry, as always "energy efficiency" will save us, as long as no one tells William Stanley Jevons.

Walter Russell Mead on the Life Cycle of Liberalism

Walter Russell Mead follows up on his last column with some essential history of social programs and their life cycles.  It goes a long way to understanding how we got to our present state and what must be done going forward.

Walter Russell Mead and Rush Limbaugh

For two days running, radio host Rush Limbaugh has discussed this book review by Walter Russell Mead.  (I'm not sure how Mead feels about this).  The book--Reckless Endangerment:  How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon, by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner--is now No. 2 on Amazon.com.

The book tells the story of the role played by government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae played in the 2008 financial collapse.

"Higher Prices, Higher Emissions"

Der Spiegel reports on the practical implications of Germany's nuclear power phase-out.  It will mean more fossil fuel (natural gas and coal), more reliance on France's nuclear power, and a de-industrialization.

Joel Kotkin on California Enviros

In Forbes Joel Kotkin writes about California and the environmental movement.

The Free Market Energy Boom

Michael Baron discusses the Free Market Energy Boom.  No you read that correctly.  And a Bonus Friedrich Hayek reference.

(Via InstaPundit)

The Light Bulb Police

In today's Wall Street Journal opinion page.

Visual Proof of Growing Suburbs

The Anti-Planner (Randal O'Toole) links to a series of maps showing how the suburbs continue to grow at the expense of cities.  Dig deep, though, and you see a little glimmer of hope (or a least a tiny blue dot) for the coolest urban neighborhoods, even in Detroit!

However,

"Nationwide, one feature stands out: the bumper crop of fresh suburbs that ring almost every metropolitan area. Where did all of these people come from? A zoom into the Midwest suggests the answer. The new tract developments appear to be sucking the life out the older neighborhoods, which bear the scarlet tints of waning population"

Here is the map for Minneapolis--St. Paul.

Decline and Fall of the American Empire

According to The Guardian's Larry Elliott.

Jevons Paradox Strikes Again

The Baltimore Sun catches up to old news from Sweden.