The EPA has developed an inexplicable penchant for making decisions that please no one. So, it should come as no surprise that its announcement today regarding the ongoing, will-they-won’t-they Boiler MACT saga falls into this category too. The agency traded in the indefinite delay it gave itself last month to “reconsider” the final Boiler MACT standards it issued in February for a firm deadline: The EPA now promises to complete the reconsidered final standard by the end of April of 2012.
Environmentalists responded to the EPA’s earlier announcement that it would indefinitely delay the reconsidered final standard with equal parts anger and shock. (See here and here) To allow this indefinite delay, the agency exploited a loophole in the Administrative Procedure Act, crafting a one-sided “justice” analysis that considered only industry’s interests while completely ignoring those of the public and the environment.
It’s good that EPA has given itself an actual deadline. But let’s be clear on the cost of the ten-month delay in finalizing the regulation. Because EPA failed to finish the regulation on the original deadline, mandated by statute, Americans will suffer:
Up to 5,500 premature deaths;
Up to 3,300 non-fatal heart attacks; and
Up to 1,300 cases of acute bronchitis
Truly, the price is too high. But it’s apparently not high enough for industry and its supporters in Congress. A bill to delay and dilute the Boiler MACT rule is pending in the House. Meanwhile, anti-regulatory voices continue to attack the rule, despite the delay.
It’s not clear what the EPA hoped to gain from this delay. But, if the agency actually follows through with the April 2012 deadline, at least the rule will be firmly in place in case a President even less friendly to public health and the environment should be elected in November 2012. That’s a small victory, to be sure, but one that may become more familiar as the elections start to kick into full gear.
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Catherine O'Neill | June 24, 2011
The EPA has developed an inexplicable penchant for making decisions that please no one. So, it should come as no surprise that its announcement today regarding the ongoing, will-they-won’t-they Boiler MACT saga falls into this category too. The agency traded in the indefinite delay it gave itself last month to “reconsider” the final Boiler MACT standards it […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | June 22, 2011
Fact: It often takes agencies up to 10 years (in some cases even longer) to develop and issue critical regulations needed to protect people and the environment. These delays may save corporations money, but they impose real and preventable costs in terms of lives lost, money wasted, and ecosystems destroyed. The reasons for this delay are not […]
Robert Verchick | June 22, 2011
Imagine you are building a beach house somewhere on the Gulf Coast and that I had some information about future high tides that would help you build a smarter structure, avoid flood damage, and save money in the long-run. Would you want that information? Not if you follow the reasoning of Representatives Steve Scalise of […]
Ben Somberg | June 21, 2011
CPR Member Scholar Doug Kysar has a post over at Nature with more analysis on the Supreme Court’s ruling this week in the American Electric Power v. Connecticut case. Writes Kysar: The court went out of its way to emphasize that federal common-law actions would be barred, even if the EPA decides not to regulate […]
Rena Steinzor | June 21, 2011
Manic House Republicans voted last Thursday to de-fund the implementation of a landmark law, passed just a few months ago, to strengthen Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority to police tainted food. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the agriculture appropriations bill, announced on the House floor that the cuts were […]
Daniel Farber | June 20, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. The Supreme Court decided the AEP case. The jurisdictional issues (standing and the political question doctrine) got punted. The Court said that the lower court rulings were affirmed by an equally divided court. So far as I know, this is the first time that the Court has ever done that and […]
Matthew Freeman | June 20, 2011
As part of its ongoing campaign to derail health, safety, and environmental regulations that it regards as inconvenient to industry, the Chamber of Commerce sent a letter earlier this month to Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the White Hosue Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, calling on him to push the EPA to suspend an initiative […]
Matthew Freeman | June 17, 2011
The Washington Post reports today on the White House’s latest failed effort to extract political gain from the President’s misguided “regulatory look-back,” led with disturbing enthusiasm by Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The story tells us a lot about the thinking of the man who controls access […]
Robert Verchick | June 12, 2011
Copenhagen—Denmark’s famed “Little Harbor Lady,” or in English, “Little Mermaid,” has had her share of antics and perils. She’s been photographed by millions in Copenhagen’s harbor, carted off and shown at the 2010 World Fair in Shanghai, beheaded (several times), dynamited, splashed with pink paint, and enveloped in a Burqua. An environmental nerd for all […]