Senator Susan Collins announced last week the “Regulatory Time-Out Act” (S. 1538), which would put a one-year moratorium on most “economically significant” regulations. On Monday, she said she had 16 other Senators on board – all Republicans. So while I’m not under any illusion this is going anywhere, one point jumped out at me for discussion.
One of Senator Collins’ top targets in the past year has been the boiler MACT rule, which would require certain facilities to reduce their emissions of mercury, soot, lead and other pollutants that harm our health. At first glance, it appears this bill would serve to delay the boiler MACT rule even further than it already has been. (How a 12-month delay, starting presumably sometime during the current 10-month delay, adds up to being the exact right fix is anyone’s guess, and it’s also not clear how this would reduce “uncertainty.”)
But consider this. Collins’ press release says: “The moratorium would not apply to rules that address imminent threats to human health or safety or other emergencies, or that apply to the criminal justice system, military or foreign affairs.”
It may have been meant as a throw-away line to make the bill sound more reasonable. But the proposed boiler MACT, in its most recent form, would prevent 2,600 to 6,600 deaths per year. Are 2,600 to 6,600 preventable deaths each year caused by pollution from industrial boilers not an imminent threat to human health? How many more people would need to die for it to be an imminent threat to human health?
The press release goes on to say:
Within 10 days of the effective date of Senator Collins’ “Regulatory Time-Out Act,” agencies must submit to OMB and to Congress a list of rules which they believe are exempt.
The EPA, of course, would have to stick up for itself. But having a debate over whether 2,600 to 6,600 deaths per year is an “imminent threat to human health” is one the agency ought to be happy to have, and one Collins and her industry allies surely fear. They have spent many months talking about the costs of regulations, trying to sideline any discussion of their benefits. This could be one of those instances where they should be worried about getting what they say they want.
Showing 2,817 results
Ben Somberg | September 13, 2011
Senator Susan Collins announced last week the “Regulatory Time-Out Act” (S. 1538), which would put a one-year moratorium on most “economically significant” regulations. On Monday, she said she had 16 other Senators on board – all Republicans. So while I’m not under any illusion this is going anywhere, one point jumped out at me for […]
Daniel Farber | September 12, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. A current conservative refrain is the regulatory uncertainty is holding back the economy. Consider an editorial entitled “Obama’s regulatory flood is drowning economic growth”: Businesses large and small face more uncertainty today about the federal regulatory environment than at any point since the New Deal . . . . Seeing this […]
Rena Steinzor | September 8, 2011
From what we hear, EPA is not a happy place these days, and we don’t wonder why. Never did a hard-pressed staff deserve so much guff, less. Politico reported that the White House is treating Lisa Jackson with kid gloves, hoping against hope that she won’t up and quit on them over the outrageous White House trashing […]
Lena Pons | September 8, 2011
In May 2010, EPA sent a draft “Chemicals of Concern” list, including bisphenol A (BPA) and five other chemicals, to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. The proposed list would be the first time EPA has used its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to publish such a […]
Thomas McGarity | September 6, 2011
Last Friday, President Obama ordered EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw EPA’s new ambient air quality standard for ground level ozone (smog). The order came in a letter from Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. The order does not pretend to be based […]
Rena Steinzor | September 2, 2011
In perhaps the most troubling sign of his determination to pander to business at the expense of public health, President Obama announced this morning that he had blocked EPA’s science-based efforts to lower the levels of smog that drive children and the elderly inside on Code Red days. Automobile manufacturers, power plant operators, the oil industry, […]
Victor Flatt | September 2, 2011
Today’s decision of the Obama administration to withdraw new ozone rules is not only bad policy, it is also illegal. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to revisit its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) every five years to ensure that they are adequate to protect the public health and safety. In 2006, the Bush Administration […]
Daniel Farber | September 1, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I should probably start by putting my cards on the table. I’m not really an advocate of cap and trade as compared with other forms of regulation. What I care about is getting effective carbon restrictions in place, whether they take the form of cap and trade, a carbon tax, industry-wide […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | August 31, 2011
House Republicans have promised this week that upon their return to Washington after the recess they will attempt to stop 10 important proposed regulations because they are “job-destroying.” Adhering to the belief that “if you say it often enough, people will believe its true,” the party continues to insist that regulations cost jobs. But, as I […]