A new Government Accountability Office report says the federal government underestimated the number of coal-fired plants expected to close, mostly as a result of the EPA’s Mercury Air Toxic Standard (MATS). The Daily Caller explains: “GAO found that power companies have already or plan to retire 13 percent of the country’s coal-fired power capacity through 2025 due to federal environmental rules – above the GAO’s 2012 prediction that only between 2 and 12 percent of the country’s coal capacity would retire through 2025. But the retirements could go even further, GAO noted, as the Energy Department’s statistics arm projects retirements ‘from 2012 through 2020 could reach approximately 50,000 MW or about 16 percent of net summer generating capacity available at the end of 2012.’” It gets worse. The analysis doesn’t include the effects of a newly crafted CO2 regulation. “The EPA’s own analysis found this rule would force up to 19 percent of the U.S. coal-fired capacity to shut down and cut coal production by up to 28 percent,” the DC continues. Environmental officials are deflecting blame, claiming reduced natural gas prices and increased coal costs are partly the cause. Guess why coal prices are “necessarily skyrocketing”? You can thank the EPA for that. The administration can pretend all they want, but this is exactly as they planned it. More…