EPA Ground Ozone Fight Illustrates Dysfunction in U S Government
Post on: 2011-09-05 By: admin
COMMENTARY | Compromise or cave in? President Barack Obama ordered the EPA to delay regulatory changes designed to reduce ground level ozone. This move has pundits buzzing about exactly what he's up to.
On one hand, the EPA faces a lawsuit from the American Lung Association for failure to adequately protect the public health, reports the Associated Press. EPA's own website supports these accusations, listing the consequences of exposure to ground level ozone as: "pain when taking a deep breath;" "increased susceptibility to pneumonia and bronchitis;" and "permanent lung damage."
Conservatives fought the change because of the economic consequences. This particular regulation was considered exceptionally expensive to implement, costing up to $90 billion . The president's strategy is fairly obvious, considering that this announcement was made "three days after the White House identified seven regulations that would cost private businesses at least $1 billion each."
The president has been accused of courting the centrist vote, but where I come from this is called choosing your battles carefully. President Obama made it clear that he has not withdrawn his support for these changes, but merely delayed them to 2013. It bears noting that other regulatory changes made during the Obama administration -- such as doubling fuel efficiency standards for most vehicles and decreasing power plant emissions -- are already working to reduce air pollution.
To me this conflict illustrates a systemic problem in our government that's not being addressed at all. Instead of working together to find creative solutions to problems where several interests have legitimate concerns, the Republicans and Democrats stand against opposite walls and refuse to look at each other like boys and girls at a sixth grade dance. Or worse, they scream at each other and stick their fingers in their ears so they don't accidentally hear what the other is saying.
If the government was a corporation, it would have gone under long ago. It needs to take a businesslike approach, and listen to each other with an ear toward finding a way to address or mitigate all concerns. I'm not talking about compromise here, but creative, cooperative problem solving.
Maybe some of the people drawing unemployment could be put to work updating factory systems to meet EPA standards. Would industry be more open to making these changes if they got free labor in return? We have resources, and we have needs. Think lawmakers, how do we put the two together?
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Since the regulations have not been put into print for public viewing, it is hard to make a judgement as to how much they would cost and how many jobs lost or new jobs created.Also, this is a delay and not a repeal.For years the oil industry fought against the idea of getting rid of lead in gasoline and how many jobs would be lost etc. and guess what no lead in gasoline and we are all living much healthier for it.In the U.S., we use ultra low sulfur diesel, this is a tremendous benefit to the air.Also, it benefits local refineries in that they are the only ones set up to manufacture ultra low sulfur diesel. As our population increases, the need for stricter environmental laws will make it necessary to come up with better technology.We can do it.We put a man on the moon in 1969 and we certainly can make our lives better coming up with the technology to make our air and water safer.Too much negative talk as to what we can't do and not enough as to what we can do.
At least seven labor unions are begging Obama to abandon additional new and proposed EPA regulations, statements, and procedures that eliminate high-paying union jobs or prevent them from being created: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Texas (23,000 members) 1,500 IBEW jobs threatened by new EPA rules; the 76,000-member United Mine Workers, which estimates that power-plant closures forced by new EPA rules will directly kill 54,151 jobs - mostly union jobs - and indirectly eliminate 197,140 others in America’s coal, utility, and railroad industries; the 720,000-member International Association of Machinists opposing new EPA regulations threatening sales and operation of business and general aviation jet aircraft the union believes will cause more members to be laid-off (the union estimates 20,000 laid off members already due to hostile treatment by regulators); and the Plumbing and Pipefitters' Union, Operating Engineers Union, Laborers International, and Teamsters Unions, who oppose EPA resistance and footdragging on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, postponing 118,000 high paying union jobs for workers who are sitting on the sidelines of our ailing national economy.”
actually that $90 billion would most likely not all go to employees, there are raw materials costs to figure in, plus it will affect the profits of the companies that have to upgrade, which means they'll try to cut corners and underpay their workers.Let's face it, either way the mega corporations are going to screw the middle class and lower class, to reap their profits any which way they can.The average tax payer doesn't win, ever.
Pssst... economic bozos... turn on your brains for once... if something costs $90 billion to implement, it takes NEW JOBS worth $90 billion to do it! So if you do not implement such a regulation, you lose $90 billion worth of jobs.
But I am sure you never thought about it that way... did you?
Well, don't despair, China is thinking about it this way, which is why they are investing ten times more than we are in renewable energy and clean technologies.
Ok let's have perfect air no matter that such a thing does not exist in nature and have the 100% unemployment it will take to achieve this goal.Of course starving to death will be the next big problem.I wonder how they will regulate that problem out of existence?
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