Stop Ozone Regulations

Obama Administration Has Issued New Ozone Regulations that Will Strangle American Industry

In a stealth move over the Thanksgiving holidays, the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency issued a new set of ozone regulations that are being called the “costliest” in history, according to an article in the Daily Caller.

The EPA’s proposed standard lowers the acceptable amount of ozone in the air from 75 parts per billion to a range of 65-70 parts per billion. The agency says this new standard is based on more than 1,000 scientific studies published since 2008, and will prevent from 320,000 to 960,000 asthma attacks per year, along with “preventing more than 750 to 4,300 premature deaths; 1,400 to 4,300 asthma-related emergency room visits; and 65,000 to 180,000 missed workdays.”

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is outraged. She said:

Many of these rules are being imposed with little concern or attention to their costs for families and businesses. With regard to ozone, in particular, the projected health benefits are heavily speculative at best, notwithstanding their high costs to achieve.

Despite the fact there is no real science to support any health benefits to lowering ozone levels, The National Association of Manufacturers states in their “Potential Economic Impacts of a Stricter Ozone Standard report (July 2014)”:

A new study by NERA Economic Consulting and commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reveals that a new ozone regulation from the Obama Administration could cost $270 billion per year and place millions of jobs at risk. This would be the most expensive regulation ever imposed on the American public.

The loss of jobs is not the only economic cost to this new action by the EPA:

…Cost the average U.S. household $1,570 per year in the form of lost consumption; and increase natural gas and electricity costs for manufacturers and households across the country.

The article says the EPA will take comments from stakeholders on establishing an even lower smog standard of 60 parts per billion. Industry groups have complained this could cost Americans $3.4 trillion by 2040. Additionally, that standard would put huge areas of the country “out of compliance,” which could bring federal intervention into state environmental plans. Industry groups and Republican members of Congress have labeled this new rule potentially the most “expensive ever imposed.” Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, issued this statement:

This new ozone regulation threatens to be the most expensive ever imposed on industry in America and could jeopardize recent progress in manufacturing by placing massive new costs on manufacturers and closing off counties and states to new business by blocking projects at the permitting stage.

Source:http://conservativesunited.com/obama-new-ozone-regulations/