It all started Monday on the Daily Caller. The story claimed that the EPA, in planning regulations on greenhouses gasses, is “asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion — to attempt to implement the rules.” The story spread like wild among many of the usual suspects, like National Review, Red State and Fox News. And it was promoted by some of the top anti-regulation advocates in Congress: Senator Jim Inhofe, House Energy & Commerce’s Environment and the Economy subcommittee chair John Shimkus, and Rep. Geoff Davis, chief sponsor of the REINS Act. Inhofe and Davis both reprinted the original article directly on their site.
One problem: the story isn’t true.
Daily Caller writer Matthew Boyle found the 230,000 stat in a brief the EPA filed on September 16. That brief defends the “tailoring rule,” which is the agency’s method of limiting which greenhouse gas emitters will be regulated under the Clean Air Act’s PSD Program. The EPA has said previously that it would be very impractical to require all small emissions sources (i.e., any facility emitting over 100 or 250 tons per year of CO2) to get a permit; instead, it will focus on large sources, such as big industrial facilities that emit at least 75,000 – 100,000 tons per year of CO2.
In the brief (see pages 48-49 of the PDF), EPA says that “immediately applying the literal PSD statutory threshold of 100/250 tpy to greenhouse gas emissions” – that is, no tailoring rule – would “overwhelm the resources of permitting authorities and severely impair the functioning of the programs…” It would necessitate, the EPA estimated, 230,000 new hires.
The irony here is that in worrying specifically about a hypothetical 230,000 new EPA hires, the anti-regulatory crowd has a great ally on this matter – one who just laid out a 149-page case against the non-tailored GHG regulation that could theoretically require it. That was the EPA.
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Amy Sinden | September 27, 2011
It all started Monday on the Daily Caller. The story claimed that the EPA, in planning regulations on greenhouses gasses, is “asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion — to attempt to implement the rules.” The story spread like wild among many […]
Ben Somberg | September 26, 2011
Member Scholar Robert Adler had an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune over the weekend noting a new survey in Utah showing state residents valuing both a sound economy and a healthy environment as fundamental, co-equal requirements of their quality of life. The survey was part of a “Quality of Life Index” from the Utah […]
| September 26, 2011
In toxics regulation, environmental lawyers face an uphill battle when they challenge a risk assessment performed by a protector agency. Courts review the agency’s risk assessment under a deferential “arbitrary and capricious” standard, and courts are reluctant to second-guess an agency’s calculation of the risks of a pesticide or other chemicals. So it was a […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | September 23, 2011
Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan) once remarked, “I’ll let you write the substance … you let me write the procedure, and I’ll screw you every time.” Legislation introduced yesterday in the Senate by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) and in the House by Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) […]
Ben Somberg | September 22, 2011
Today the House is taking up debate on the “TRAIN Act”, a sweeping anti-regulatory bill that would serve to gum up the works at agencies that work to protect our health and the environment. The bill was bad to start with; then it became a true circus, with all sorts of regulation-blocking amendments being tacked […]
Rena Steinzor | September 21, 2011
In a dispiriting reminder that the more things change, the more they remain the same, Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) plucked a page from former Rep. Tom Delay’s playbook, denouncing federal civil servants as “the Gestapo” because when he popped into a local office unannounced and without an appointment last week, staff kept him waiting for […]
Ben Somberg | September 21, 2011
CPR Member Scholar David Driesen has an op-ed in this morning’s Syracuse Post-Standard discussing the Administration’s punt on the smog standard, arguing it’s “unfortunate that President Obama has decided to embrace the Republican narrative about regulatory burdens instead of explaining the true causes of our economic woes.” Remembering the role of financial deregulation in our […]
Robert Verchick | September 21, 2011
Let’s stipulate: EPA’s withdrawal of a stronger ozone rule was the low point. And for many, a betrayal, a sedition, the nation’s biggest sell-out since Dylan went electric (or played China, take your pick). Still, Jackson’s EPA has accomplished a great deal. Last week the EPA showcased new policy devoted to one issue with which Jackson […]
Peter T. Jenkins | September 20, 2011
Guest blogger Peter T. Jenkins is a lawyer and consultant working with the National Environmental Coalition on Invasive Species (NECIS), committed to preventing further harm from invasive, non-native plants and animals. He is Executive Director of the Center for Invasive Species Prevention (CISP). If the federal government cannot regulate huge constrictor snakes that have already […]