Morgan Griffith on EPA Regulations

(Visit his web site, linked in his last paragraph, for comments on the Olympics and on international relations...) From U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith, R-VA-9:

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Alabaster Towers

As summarized by The Hill, a report released earlier this month by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the EPA “has not properly analyzed the environmental effects of its ethanol mandate.” The Hill story explains that “The 2005 law creating the renewable fuel standard requires the EPA to write reports on the environmental impacts of the requirement to blend ethanol and other biofuels with gasoline, and to determine whether measures are needed to blunt the effects. But the [OIG] found the agency’s compliance with those provisions lacking.”

For many of us, the results of this OIG report are unsurprising.

For many of its major rules, EPA does not assess the ripple effects of its rules across the economy and often underestimates the potential job losses from its regulations.

For example, while EPA acknowledged potential lost “job years” of up to 26,000 in 2025 and up to 34,000 in 2030 for the electricity, coal and natural gas sectors due to the Clean Power Plan, EPA did not consider the full economy-wide impacts of the rule. The Energy Information Administration recently projected that the Clean Power Plan would reduce coal production in all major U.S. supply regions, while if the Clean Power Plan is not implemented, “U.S. coal production remains close to 2015 levels through 2040.” Based on the EIA’s analysis, the National Mining Association recently projected that the actual job losses in the coal sector alone due to the Clean Power Plan could be 100,000 or more.

Similarly, the EPA proposed regulations on boilers in 2010, which the regulated community concluded would have put at risk nearly 230,000 jobs across the U.S. economy, including over 20,000 jobs in the forest products sector alone. All the while, EPA continued to suggest there would no or minimal job losses from the proposed rule.

EPA bureaucrats in their alabaster towers in Washington don’t seem to understand how the economy in the real world works. They have essentially accused industry of crying wolf. But that “wolf” has consumed our jobs, and our people are paying the price.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.
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