“When someone finds himself trapped into a hole, the first step to getting out is to quit digging. On a day when the nation’s ghastly jobs picture has been captured in stark detail, President Obama’s withdrawal of the EPA’s draconian, costly, and unnecessary new ozone standard is a rare bit of good news.
“By the EPA’s own admission, the proposed ozone standard would have imposed costs as much as $90 billion – making it the most expensive environmental regulation to date. Organized labor, the business community, leading scientists, many states, and members of Congress from both parties sharply oppose this rule.
“Though this single action is welcome, Washington, D.C.’s, unelected federal bureaucrats continue to unleash an avalanche of more than 4,000 other job-killing rules that would undermine the nation’s electric power supply, increase energy prices, and send U.S. business and jobs to other countries. Most notably, the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule still threatens the stability of the Texas electricity grid next year.
“Instead of continuing to dig us deeper into economic malaise, our country should instead pursue comprehensive regulatory reform as the way to rebuild our economy and improve our environment.”
Kathleen Hartnett White is director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. She was commissioner and chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from 2001 to 2007.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/TexasPublicPolicyFoundation Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/TPPF
– 30 –