The federal government is predicting that consumers will spend nearly 5% more on electricity this summer than they did last summer, thanks to new EPA regs that are forcing electric companies to take hundreds of thousands of megawatts offline that are generated by coal-fired electric plants. Washington Times: On average, Americans will spend nearly 4.8 percent more on electricity this summer than they did last year, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration. The increase will come from a 2.6 percent increase in electricity use and a 2.1 increase in the average price of retail electricity, the agency said. Consumers are receiving the dim news as utilities take tens of thousands of megawatts of coal-generated power offline to comply with a host of EPA regulations and because of the sharp increase in cheap, domestic natural gas. Regulations such as the EPA’s mercury and air toxic standards already are having an effect on the...(Read Full Post)