Can the U.S. Survive With a Smaller Coal Industry? Some Claim President Barack Obama and EPA Is Making Country Vulnerable To Blackouts

Utility officials in charge of the nation's power grid are claiming that President Barack Obama's push to reduce the use and reliance of coal-fired power plants could make the power system vulnerable to future blackouts.

American Electric Power representative Nick Akins told Fox News that the power grid wouldn't be able to handle the extreme winter cold or the intense summer heat without the use of coal.

"I worry about the potential of brownouts and blackouts if we're ... actually depending on this generation that's going to be retired," Akins said.

Mike Duncan, an official for American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said the U.S. isn't ready for the consequences that could come from reduced coal use despite the Obama administration's environmental agenda that has already been closing down coal plants around the nation.

"Regulation from five years ago is closing about 20 percent of the coal plants." Duncan said. "Regulations being proposed now could close an additional 20 percent of coal plants. And that creates huge stresses -- we're just not ready for anything like that in this country."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said that based on government studies, the U.S. will have more than enough electricity-generating capacity for the country. She also said the EPA recognizes the climate changes atop the reduction in coal use, but the agency is making sure there is enough energy.

"Nothing we do can threaten reliability," McCarthy said. "We have to recognize that in a changing climate like the one we have recently been experiencing, it is an increasing challenge to maintain a reliable energy supply."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) said energy security is an important issue especially in her state after going through the recent winter that brought extremely low temperatures. She said her state's energy system neared its limits during the winter.

"Eight-nine percent of the coal electricity capacity that is due to go offline was utilized as that backup to meet the demand this winter," Mukowski said.