The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a 645-page ruling whose basic aim is to cut coal plants out of the mix in producing the nation's electricity. States will supposedly be given a choice, but the only real way to meet the agency's demands for carbon-dioxide reductions will be to cut back on coal. All this will be a devastating blow to the Midwestern economy, driving up energy prices for everyone, while having only the slightest impact on global warming.

There is a great irony to this. In the early 1970s, coal was...