President Barack Obama has decided to risk the lives and well-being of thousands, potentially millions, of Americans at risk by deciding to quash efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to put in place stronger air quality regulations targeting the nation’s dirtiest industries and regions. The order is is especially unexpected given that the clean air imitative was initially proposed by the president and his own administration.
Citing economic factors such as the consistently high national unemployment rate, a situation made worse by the report on Friday that the country added zero net jobs in August, the president issued a direct order to his EPA to shut down their imminent release of new ozone and air quality standards that would have been in effect until at least 2013.
Obama had faced pressure from Republicans in Congress as well as business leaders to abandon the EPA’s bid to rewrite air quality regulations from the Bush administration that were higher than the agency deemed safe and were seen as overly favorable to industrial interests. Now those rules will stay in place until at least 2013, when another review is scheduled.
Republicans and business groups cheered the decision, calling it a “victory,” while President Obama said he wanted to “underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty…”
President Barack Obama, citing the nation’s struggling economy, asked the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw an air quality rule that Republicans and business groups have said could cost hundreds of billions of dollars a year and kill thousands of jobs.
The surprise move came as the economic recovery continued to show signs of stalling, with the labor market failing to add new jobs in August for the first time since September 2010.
In a statement, Mr. Obama said he supported efforts to promote clean air but added, “I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover.”
The rule, which would have tightened standards for smog-forming ozone, has been under attack for months from industry groups and lawmakers. Republicans have cited the rule as a prime example of the overregulation they say is hampering the economic recovery.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) quickly claimed victory, saying the president’s reversal “highlights the devastating impact on jobs that has been created by this administration’s regulatory overreach.”
Mr. Obama is set to address Congress and the nation Thursday on his jobs plan as the unemployment rate remains stuck above 9%. Mr. McConnell said withdrawing the rule “alone will prevent more job losses than any speech the president has given.”
Needless to say, environmental groups were livid, calling Obama’s flip-flop “a huge win for corporate polluters.”
There are likely to be serious consequences from the president’s decision that range beyond the political. The EPA first proposed the tighter air quality regulations because the old bush administration standards were seen as far too lenient to protect Americans from harmful effects of pollution, with the new rules estimated to save as many as 12,000 lives each year they would be in place.
But industrial special interests and GOP lawmakers complained about the financial impacts and the “burden” of more environmental regulation, claiming they would be forced to assume costs of upwards of a trillion dollars, well above reasonable numbers put forward by the Obama administration and EPA.
Though the obvious deduction from the president’s action on Friday was that it came as a reaction to corporate pressure and the staggering economy, White House officials countered that argument.
“This is not a product of industry pressure. This is a judgment on the merits,” said one official. Another added: “This has nothing to do with politics, nothing at all.”
Now the rest of the country is left to wonder what sort of effects Obama’s move will have on their safety and their health. As Grist puts it, this is a “ huge win for Big Business,” which “had claimed it couldn’t weather an economic downturn AND keep from suffocating people at the same time. ”
The environmental blog also noted that the hand-wringing over “costs” are unfounded considering that businesses and state and local governments would have had up to 20 years to come into compliance with the strictest regulations.
Also unclear is whether pulling the plug on new air quality rules will actually mean the end of this particular issue. Another review is up in 2013, and more debate will surely take place then. But the existing standards, the incredibly loose Bush-era air quality rules that Obama just endorsed, may be challenged well before that time.
The Obama administration itself, in the form of EPA chief Lisa Jackson just earlier this summer, listed questions over the “legal defensibility” of the current Bush-era regulations as a main reason to come up with new, tighter standards for air quality.
In other words, the federal government may get sued because of Obama’s thumbs-up to dirtier air.
In a response dated yesterday, Jackson says it would have been illegal to set the standard outside the range that a board of expert scientists said was necessary to protect human health. It also would have led to more costs for cities and states, which wouldn’t have known which standard to shoot for, she said.
“The legal defensibility of the 2008 decision posed major challenges for the federal government given the strength of the scientific record at that time,” as well as the letter of the Clean Air Act and the recommendations of scientific advisers. “I decided that reconsideration was the appropriate path based on concerns that the 2008 standards were not legally defensible,” she added.
Even more important, hundreds of billions of dollars in health savings may be lost if the EPA kills tighter air quality regulation. Back in 2010 when they first announced that they would seek to change the lenient Bush administration rules, the EPA estimated health care savings of up to $100 billion if the new rules were put into place, keeping millions of Americans healthier — and alive.
Former President George W. Bush personally intervened in the issue after hearing complaints from electric utilities and other affected industries. His EPA set a standard of .075 parts per million, stricter than one adopted in 1997 but not as strict as what scientists working for the EPA said was needed to protect public health.
“Using the best science to strengthen these standards is a long overdue action that will help millions of Americans breathe easier and live healthier,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement.
The Obama EPA proposed a standard at a level somewhere between .06 and .07 parts per million measured over eight hours — the same that was proposed by the EPA science panel. EPA will select a specific figure within that range later this year.
“Depending on the level of the final standard, the proposal would yield health benefits between $13 billion and $100 billion,” the Obama EPA stated. “This proposal would help reduce premature deaths, aggravated asthma, bronchitis cases, hospital and emergency room visits and days when people miss work or school because of ozone-related symptoms. Estimated costs of implementing this proposal range from $19 billion to $90 billion.”
Obama has been a real bust for everything. Except the war mongers, banksters and big business. And people still defend him. Time to come out of your self induced comas defenders and smell the smog. It’s about to become easier to do so.
Yet again…. It takes alot to get a dyed in the wool Dem disillusioned.
I’m there now. I really am.
In our new country order, the Dems are the old Repubs and the Repubs are fascists.
What is really disheartening is to see the new Dems/repub lights give away the farm to the new Repub fascists.
This would really be quite entertaining and funny in an ironic sort of way if it were not devastating our nation economically and morally.
Will the beatings continue until morale improves?
I’ll cut him some slack here I have been a fierce critic of Obama, but I will say that at a time when joblessness in hovering at 9.1%, having yet another regulation, however well-intentioned, creates more uncertainty. The US economy will not see any new businesses, but hopefully it will expansion of existing businesses. A new regulation such as this will make more sense in a booming economy, right now it is counterproductive. But that is all I can say at this point in his favor.
Worst Democratic President on the environment…EVER.
This guy is to the right of Nixon, Bush I and now Bush II? With friends like this, who needs enemies?
Most of you are being a little harsh on poor OCarter, considering what He has already done, having caused the tides to recede and the earth to heal and all…
All that ozone mainly kills the urban poor. Obama figures he can take their votes for granted (if they get to vote at all next go round).
So why risk negative campaign ads by following through on the new standard?
And despite issuing the news the Friday before Labor Day, I’m sure the White House is, really, deeply proud of this action. (It’s very pragmatic, dontchaknow.)