Coming out of steep recessions, the Obama and Reagan recoveries are strikingly different in their methods — and results. Over two years out from the end of recession, Reagan’s recovery was more than three times stronger — 7 percent growth — than that of Obama. Reasons? Exhibit A is regulation, with Reagan accelerating down the deregulation path charted by Jimmy Carter.

Meanwhile, Obama has put the regulatory boot on the necks of business. Thus, while the economy continues to list at 2 percent growth and 9 percent unemployment, the EPA is running roughshod over business’s lifeblood, the energy sector.

“EPA rules threaten 2 plants in Michigan,” read a Detroit News headline this week.

“More than 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to shut down, and an additional 36 might have to close because of new federal air pollution regulations,” reports AP. “The fallout will be most acute for the towns where power plant smokestacks long have cast a shadow. Tax revenues and jobs will be lost, and investments in new power plants and pollution controls probably will raise electric bills.”

Merry Christmas. How’s that for a little coal in your stocking?

Actually, coal is the target of EPA’s offensive. AP adopts EPA propaganda in describing the plants as the “oldest and dirtiest in the country.” Nonsense. Today’s coal plants are extremely efficient. They are “dirty” only in that they produce “pollution” called carbon dioxide, the inert gas feared by climate hysterics.

That phantom fear will shutter two plants in Michigan, hammering local economies where residents have more plausible fears like home foreclosure and joblessness in a state with a still-above-the-national-average unemployment rate of 10 percent.

Stimulus, Obama-style.