The EPA’s proposed CO2 regulations for existing power plants
haven’t even been released yet, and already there’s a big brawl
over their costs and benefits.  As Bloomberg notes, the early
rush on political messaging shows that both sides expect voters’
views of the proposal to be determined by whether they think it
will help or hurt their pocketbooks.  President Obama is
expected to unveil the proposed rules on Monday, but the Chamber
of Commerce — a right-wing trade association representing
established big business — got a jump on the news cycle five
days early by releasing a report arguing that the rules would
impose massive economic hardship. It claims that if EPA sets
formidable pollution-control targets, it could reduce coal-based
electric generation capacity by one-third. That, the Chamber
predicts, would result in economic losses of $50 billion a year
and the loss of 224,000 jobs.  Environmental groups and the
Obama administration say that’s baloney. It’s not as if the coal
power would be replaced with