Don Brunell: Killing King Coal

Recently, the EPA proposed new air quality regulations for power plants that activists say will finally kill King Coal.

The rule would require all new power plants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by almost 44 percent. While natural gas plants can meet the standard, coal-fired plants cannot without expensive carbon-capture and storage technology that is not commercially available.

While EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson stresses the standards will apply only to new power plants, some experts say the Clean Air Act explicitly requires the government to apply the standards to existing plants...