Responding to a request from Rep. Darrell Issa (R., California), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, U.S. businesses have named their chief obstacle to growth: the EPA. More than labor regulations, more than financial regulations, more than any other regulatory arena, leaders of more than 100 interested parties cited overly burdensome environmental regulations as their main economic concern.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal,
The EPA’s rules to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were cited as an impediment to growth by at least 30 organizations writing to Mr. Issa, including representatives of the agriculture, business, chemicals, energy, paper, manufacturing and steel and iron sectors.
Groups complained about dozens of other proposed and existing EPA regulations in letters viewed by the Journal, including the agency’s plans to tighten limits on emissions of some pollutants from industrial boilers, ground-level ozone, mountain-top mining, cooling water intake structures, the level of nutrients in Florida waters, and pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay.
But the Obama administration has so far defended the EPA’s efforts to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which business groups fear could ultimately require costly new technology for power plants, factories, refineries and drive up energy costs for all businesses.
Those of us who have followed the increasing heavy-handedness of the bureaucratic behemoth that is our nation’s environmental-regulatory agency are none too surprised by this. With any luck, these American businesses will get through to Congress. With lots of luck, the Republican-controlled legislature will put a stop to the regulatory agency’s end-runs around the legislative process.