Obama's EPA pushing unfair, unbalanced, unneeded regulations

John Engler:

President Obama won praise from businesses in January when he promised to bring "reason and balance" to a "21st-century regulatory system." Yet now, fewer than six months later, his administration is preparing to issue the single most expensive environmental regulation in U.S. history, a job-killing rule it is under no obligation to impose on the struggling economy.

There's nothing reasonable or balanced about the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to tighten national air-quality standards for ozone emissions at this time. For one thing, it's premature, coming a full two years before the EPA is scheduled to complete its own scientific study of ozone emissions in 2013.

The EPA's new standards are currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget but could end up on the president's desk in the next few days. If implemented, they would reduce the existing 0.075 parts per million (ppm) ozone standard under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards program to 0.070 ppm or even 0.60 ppm.

This will mean that up to 85% of the counties currently monitored by the EPA would fall into "nonattainment" status, exceeding the air-quality ozone standards and triggering a cascade of federal and state controls.

The EPA estimates these new standards could cost business anywhere from $20 billion to $90 billion annually. New or expanding companies would be required to obtain emission offsets and install controls. Existing businesses would face expensive new retrofit requirements just to keep operating as they have for years.

On behalf of the Business Roundtable, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris recently wrote to White House Chief of Staff William Daley, noting that the EPA's new ozone rule threatens "to seriously impede economic expansion" and "discourage capital investment" in the counties affected. "Instead of creating jobs," Mr. Liveris wrote, "these counties risk losing jobs when businesses respond to the higher costs and uncertainty by closing marginal facilities and siting new facilities elsewhere, including outside the U.S."

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These regulations will lead to the closing of several power stations in Texas and will likely lead to a shortage of electricity. The EPA and Big Green don't care about the cost to the people are the suffering their regulations will impose. Any marginal improvements in air quality will be small compared to the suffering they will impose.