President Obama Keeps Another Campaign Promise!

Washington DC, Jun 15, 2011. President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya,  has kept another campaign promise!

This will mark the third time since taking office that the President has actually accomplished something he said he would do.

On January 17, 2008, then candidate Barack Obama  told the San Francisco Chronicle during an interview that he was willing to see the coal industry go bankrupt.

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them."

A little over 3 years later President Obama has kept that campaign promise, as more coal plants are shutting down due to their inability to meet the stringent emissions standards set by the Obama's Democrat Congress in his first two years in office.

American Electric Power announced it plans to shut down several coal-fired power plants, convert or retrofit others, and cut as many as 600 jobs in the next few years to comply with regulations proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

When Barack Hussein Obama was campaigning three years ago he made literally hundreds of promises. Among those, he promised us:

"3 out of 300 isn't that bad!"

Create millions of shovel ready jobs
A tax cut for 95% of you
Open and transparent government
No jobs for lobbyists
Repeal the Patriot Act
An end to earmarks
Close Guantanamo Bay
End Warrantless Wiretaps
Bring the troops home in 16 months

And while he ignored most of his campaign promises, he actually has delivered on three of them:

Socialized Medicine
Gays in the Military
Bankrupt the Coal Industry

The latest campaign promise kept is significant because it means that consumers might see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years.

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

The increases are expected to begin to appear in 2014, and policymakers already are scrambling to find cheap and reliable alternative power sources. If they are unsuccessful, consumers can expect further increases as more expensive forms of generation take on a greater share of the electricity load.

American Electric Power, one of the country's largest coal-burning electricity generators, said Thursday it will retire nearly a quarter of its coal-fueled generating capacity and that it will spend up to $8 billion to retrofit remaining units to meet regulations that start taking effect in 2014. Those moves will have an impact.

"The sudden increase in electricity rates and impacts on state economies will be significant at a time when people and states are still struggling,'' AEP Chairman and CEO Michael G. Morris said.

Coal-fired plants historically have been one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity.

However, operating costs are expected to increase significantly because of upgrades needed on older plants to meet new environmental regulations.

The Illinois Power Agency estimates that by 2017 the energy portion of bills could jump 65 percent from today's rates.