Obama Cancels Ozone Rules After Lobbying Push by Business
Post on: 2011-09-05 By: admin
ozone proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce
regulation in a slowing economy.
The EPA will weigh new standards on ozone, which causes
smog, in two years, Obama said. The president said his drive to
roll back regulations led him to drop the air proposal.
“I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing
regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as
our economy continues to recover,” Obama said yesterday in a
statement.
The EPA’s proposed regulations for ground-level ozone would
have revised rules issued during President George W. Bush’s
administration in 2008. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said
those rules wouldn’t stand up to legal scrutiny. The EPA’s
proposal would have cost $19 billion to $90 billion, according
to the White House.
The EPA will revisit the ozone standard in 2013 as required
by law, Jackson said yesterday in a statement. Business groups,
which joined Republicans to protest that environmental and other
U.S. rules under consideration would further weaken the economy,
applauded Obama’s decision, as health and environmental groups
derided the decision.
“The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the
expense of protecting the air we breathe,” Gene Karpinski, president
of the League ofConservation Voters, an environmental group, said
in an e-mailedstatement. “This is a huge win for corporate
polluters and a huge loss for public health.”
‘Good News’
Business group representatives had met Aug. 16 with White
House Chief of Staff William Daleyto push for scrapping the
ozone changes. They said the costs would be much greater than
the administration estimated.
“That message is being heard” by the White House, Jack
Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute in
Washington, which represents companies such as Exxon Mobil
Corp., said in an interview. “These are the kinds of signals
that the economy and business needs to begin pulling money off
the sidelines and start investing.”
Obama, facing re-election next year, is under political
pressure on the economy, which the Labor Department said
yesterday failed to add jobs last month. Unemployment remained
at 9.1 percent, the department said.
The president is set to address Congress Sept. 8 to outline
plans for boosting hiring and economic growth as Republicans
criticize him for his policies, including rules and regulations
on business.
“This action alone will prevent more job losses than any
speech the president has given,” Senator Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, the top Republican in the Senate, said in a statement.
Republican Votes Planned
House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, had asked
Obama last week to detail the estimated cost of regulations
proposed by the administration, and Republicans say they plan a
series of votes on measures to delay or prohibit environmental
or labor protections they blame for a weak economy. The EPA’s
ozone proposal was the costliest of seven rules identified by
the administration.
“This sudden admission by President Obama that ill-
considered regulations do, in fact, have a negative impact upon
our economy is a welcome breakthrough,” Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, said in a statement. His committee is
scheduled to vote on measures to scuttle two other EPA proposals
next week.
The ozone rule has triggered conflicts between the Obama
administration and companies such as Chevron Corp. and Dow
Chemical Co. over environmental regulation, in part because the
rules affect all industries in areas that the EPA deems exceed
Ozone is created when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides
combine in the presence of sunlight. Fuel exhaust and vapors are
major sources of the chemicals.
The resulting pollution can contribute to breathing
difficulties, lung damage and reduced cardiovascular function,
according to the EPA’s website.
The proposed standards would apply to states and
localities, which will have to take steps to reduce pollutants
if the tighter restrictions make them fall out of compliance
with the federal ozone rules.
There are 242 counties now out of compliance with the ozone
standard set in 1997, mostly in the Northeast from Washington to
New York and in Southern California, the EPA said. The lowest
standard proposed by the EPA would have more than tripled that
total, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.
EPA Proposals
The EPA’s draft regulations for ground-level ozone would
tighten the standard of 0.075 parts per million issued under
Bush in 2008, according to an agency fact sheet. The EPA’s
outside science board had recommended that the standard be
lowered to 0.060 to 0.070 parts per million, and that is what
the agency proposed in a preliminary proposal last year.
“No matter where they would have fallen on that scale,
there’s no doubt they would have thrown large swaths of the
country into non-attainment, or the penalty box,” said Ross
Eisenberg, counsel for environment and energy at the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. Once that happens businesses need costly
permits or technologies to comply, he said.
Environmentalists counter that there is wide leeway under
the Clean Air Act to ensure that standards don’t hurt the
economy. In a separate meeting with Daley last month, they
handed him a study by the Center for American Progress, a
Washington group that advises Democrats, showing that areas
cited by the EPA in the past didn’t experience lower overall
economic growth.
The EPA’s own analysis found that imposing a standard of
0.070 parts per million would have a net positive impact on the
economy, as health benefits outweighed the costs to industry.
“The White House completely capitulated to an industry
lobbying campaign based on lies” that it would harm the
economy, said John Walke, clean-air director of the National
Resources Defense Council in Washington. “They found themselves
having to repeat those lies.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mark Drajem in Washington at
mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Larry Liebert at
lliebert@bloomberg.net
Oil Drops on Signs of Economic Slowdown; Gulf Workers Return After Storm
Cyclone Leaves 25 Dead in Japan, 53 Missing
Record Kiwi Stretches Rugby Fans Descending on Bungee-Jumping’s Birthplace
Libyan Militia Surrounds Qaddafi Holdouts
California Employment at Record Low
Stocks, Oil Drop as Dollar Strengthens on U.S. Jobs, Europe Debt Concerns
Euro Weakens on Merkel’s Election Defeat, Stock Losses; Franc Strengthens
Samsung Puts New Tablet on Hold After Apple Win
More Most Popular Stories
Last update: 4:21 AM ET,Sep 5
Follow Bloombergon Twitter
Follow Bloombergon LinkedIn
Bloomberg Businessweek
日本語サイト
Bloomberg Markets Magazine
Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Bloomberg Open Symbology
关于彭博中国
©2011 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Article original from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-02/obama-cancels-ozone-rules-after-lobbying-push-by-business-1-.html
