In January 2011 President Barack Obama – stung by an electoral rebuke that cost his party control of the House of Representatives – issued an executive order attempting to reassure the public regarding his rapidly expanding regulatory state.
Obama’s order instructed federal agencies to “identify and use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends.” It also instructed them to “propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs.”
Months later, though, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its 180-page Utility MACT rule – one of the costliest regulations in American history.
Intended to impose maximum achievable control technology (MACT) over hazardous air pollutants, the rule — part of a broader war on cheap energy — stemmed from a 2000 EPA determination that it was “appropriate and necessary” for the agency to regulate mercury emissions from power plants under the 1990 Clean Air Act.
How did the EPA reach this determination? By projecting a rise in mercury emissions from 46 to 60 tons per year by 2010 (even though emissions actually declinedto 29 tons over that time period).
Nonetheless, based on this false data (and fuzzy science regarding prenatal mercury exposure) the EPA promulgated the Utility MACT rule in early 2012 despite identifying health benefits of only $500,000 to $6 million annually – at an estimated cost of nearly $11 billion per year. Industry experts place the compliance costs much higher – at $84 billion over four years.
That’s not the truly frightening component of this rule, though. Like Obama’s socialized medicine bureaucracy, his “envirocrats” are making it up as they go along.
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Bill Wilson is a board member of Americans for Limited Government. This column – which originally appeared on Fox News – is reprinted with permission.
42 comments
Hey Bill, you tool–why don’t you move to Charleston, WV and drink LOTS of water?
Yea, I know! Good thing the EPA was there to stop it from happening. What? Oh….never mind.
Yeh and just think none of it would have happened if not for the good ol “free enterprise” system!
Yeh and just think of that good ol “free enterprise” system in China and how unpolluted China is.
Well Hell thats a good reason to abolish the EPA!
Let pollution reign!
I don’t want to abolish the EPA, do you want to abolish the “free enterprise” system?
Yes, he does!
“Wet sidewalks cause rain.”
You stole my thunder!!!!!
Ditto in spades!!!!
Take a LONG slag from that there river Billy Boy!!!!!!
I’ll even go to the bank of the river downstream of the spill and get a mason jar’s worth for you and Fits to quaff!!!!!!
The good-ol’ EPA. Weren’t they responsible for the closure of the last lead smelting facility in America, just a few months ago? I can’t wait to see the impact that has on the ammo shortage, as well as how we wind up buying more crap from China to offset the loss.
What a bunch of BS – there’s no such thing as *the environment*!
BS thats going nowhere of course,but it gets all the usual suspects here stirred up.
Like labor, gender and race, the Obama liberals have so perverted the debate over the environment, they have become hateful and unbearable Nazis.
Liberals have totally screwed up every aspect of America.
Just like every other government agency, too big, too expensive and too self serving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC3VTgIPoGU
Let’s get rid of the EPA. Maybe we can get some of that brown Russian water or make our businesses more profitable by letting them dump anything in the river.
We can be the Love Canal of the South…
Since when did the good fight of protecting the environment (you know – like Iron Eyes Cody shedding a tear back in the 1970’s), become a boon for environmental studies? Oh, wait, I can answer that. Since it became a political issue. Just like our space program. It’s a shame that our own environment, our literal existence, has become so stifled by political bullshit.
Our literal existence? Everyone knows that the studies showing that carcinogens in the air, water, and soil kill humans were exaggerated to get scientists more grant money. I say death or grave injury to the human body caused by pollutants is just another scam like radiation poisoning or global warming.
I don’t think it needs to be deep sixed totally. Keep the enforcement wing. It is the legislative wing of the EPA that needs to go away.
The EPA has done good things, but the true time of need is over, and the legislative wing has long reached the point of diminishing returns on the good further restrictions accomplish.
True need will not be over until all businesses really care about the environment as much as they do profits and until all businesses are honest. I don’t see that happening at the moment or anytime in the near future.
It won’t EVER happen the way you demand it.
But the way you demand it it not at all a realistic course to pursue.
Exactly. China’s booming. Sure, you need a gas mask on to walk outside and pretty much everyone over there has asthma and will have cancer in 5 years, but hey, gotta love the production capabilities.
What’s the legal remedy for a Chinese citizens being harmed by pollution Jackie?
Do they have pollution because they don’t have an EPA? Or do they have pollution because they don’t have a function court system?
It won’t be long before China is wealthy enough to afford the luxury of clean air at the loss of production ability. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an environmental movement begin to rise up over there and get some basic regulations in place.
That depends wholeheartedly on the government over there, though.
And has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand in the US.
Wilson loves him some fossil fuel industry cock.
Seriously, though, let’s just get rid of the EPA entirely. Let all factories dump whatever the hell they want into our air, our rivers and lakes, the ground. I mean, the free market surely knows best. See all that smog in China? Well, my friend, that means more jobs! Factories will be built to produce masks to safely* breathe! See all of the extremely polluted rivers in Asia? Well, that creates opportunity for water bottle companies to sell you drinkable** water! Who cares about all sorts of maladies caused by fracking if it means higher profits for energy giants? There’s no such thing as acid rain, melting glaciers, holes in the ozone layer, climate change, or any of that crap!
* Safety Co. Breathing Masks will reduce, but not eliminate, contaminants in the air you breathe. There is no guarantee of protection against toxins, including but not limited to toxic gases, carcinogens, noxious fumes, and flatulence.
** Spring Water Inc. Spring-Flavored Recycled Tap Water follows all government rules and regulations, which none exist, to ensure your drinking water is at or below acceptable toxicity levels. By drinking this water, you agree to waive your right to a public trial in the event that consuming our product injures or kills you, your family, your dog, your garden, or your hope in humanity. You agree to settle all disputes with Spring Water Inc. in arbitration with a third party, CorporationsAlwaysWin Arbitration, selected by us. All decisions made by this third party are final.
I’m with ya Smirks!!!!
“By purchasing/consuming this product you waive any liability (implied or otherwise) and hold harmless “Spring Water, Inc. any legal actions whatsoever.”
That is the FITS way!!!!!
All I can add is Wednesday is Soylent Green Day!!!!
It’s coming sooner or later………. & God forgive us all for Mankind’s arrogance
The EPA!! Damn you, Richard Nixon!
Like all Republican Ideas, they turn bad as soon as Democrats agree.
What is Governess Haley’s intellectually informed opinion on this?
Who needs clean air, water, and soil when we have jobs? Amirite?
Gotta have a job to buy water & food.
:)
Which do you think came first, the chicken or the egg?
Don’t forget you’ve got to have a job to buy air filters and gas masks too.
So which is it, chicken or the egg?
:)
You have to be alive to have a job and healthy enough to do the work. So health comes first.
If there are no jobs, no pollution, right?
— the rooster..!!
The proto-rooster
China really does stand as a prime example of how neither a collectivist ideology or one based in the individualism of “free enterprise” has all the answers. China is more fucked up than ever and fucks up the environment more than ever now that it is becoming a big player in the international capitalist game. And, oh, yeah, Wilson is a dickhead in general.
If what you provide is true regarding mercury level projections vs actual mercury levels, then under Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, and the Administrative Procedure Act, this executive order is subject to judicial review using the “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law.” standard. This legal challenge must start in a US District Court ending up in either a US Court of Appeals or the D.C. Court depending on the language of the Clean Air Act, then to the US Supreme Court.
I know, let us start a 501c non-profit, like the Patriots for Clean Tea and Air PAC, get approval from the IRS, get funding from the Koch’s, and rip Obama a new asshole. Ooops, Obama packed the D.C. Court of Appeals with angry white communist homosexuals, ditto for the Supreme Court, and is appointing federal judges without the advice and consent of the US Senate thanks to Reid’s changing the Senate rules midterm, and his IRS is abusing power discriminating against political affiliated groups. Well, we do have cable tv to take our minds of such inconveniences.
a bizarre feature of American thought: always err on the side of immediate profit. if some risk is unknown or unknowable, just go ahead with it until it is proven beyond a shadow of doubt to be harmful to white people. lots of other cultures think this way too, but there is an alternative.
Getting rid of Wilson in this years elections will go a long way towards eliminating “Air Pollution.”