The Democrat Plan to Create 230,000 More EPA Bureaucrats

September 27, 2011

Is This What Democrats Meant by “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs”?

A new court briefing filed by President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reveals the agency admitting its own proposed greenhouse gas regulations are “absurd” and “impossible to administer.” EPA projects enforcing its rules will require 230,000 new regulators at an annual cost of $21 billion.
Meanwhile, a report out Monday shed light on resistance to the EPA’s job-destroying agenda even within some quarters of the Obama administration. In a leaked 2010 memo, one top Obama administration official predicted that new EPA rules would undercut the reliability of America’s electrical grid.
These are just the latest revelations of EPA’s job-destroying agenda, as new and pending regulations are projected to destroy millions more jobs on top of those they already have.

BACKGROUND

A new court briefing filed by President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reveals the agency admitting its own proposed greenhouse gas regulations are “absurd” and “impossible to administer.” EPA projects enforcing its rules will require 230,000 new regulators at an annual cost of $21 billion:

EPA ADMITS NEW GREENHOUSE GAS REGULATIONS ARE “ABSURD” AND “IMPOSSIBLE TO ADMINISTER” BY 2016 DEADLINE: “The Environmental Protection Agency has said new greenhouse gas regulations, as proposed, may be ‘absurd’ in application and ‘impossible to administer’ by its self-imposed 2016 deadline.”(Matthew Boyle, “EPA: Regulations Would Require 230,000 New Employees, $21 Billion,” The Daily Caller, 9/26/2011)

BUSINESSES BURDENED BY EPA RULES WOULD BALLOON FROM 14,000 TO 6.1 MILLION: “The proposed regulations would set greenhouse gas emission thresholds above which businesses must file for an EPA permit and complete extra paperwork in order to continue operating. If the EPA wins its court battle and fully rolls out the greenhouse gas regulations, the number of businesses forced into this regulatory regime would grow tremendously — from approximately 14,000 now to as many as 6.1 million.” (Matthew Boyle, “EPA: Regulations Would Require 230,000 New Employees, $21 Billion,” The Daily Caller, 9/26/2011)

EPA WANTS AN ARMY OF 230,000 NEW REGULATORS, AT COST OF $61 BILLION ANNUALLY: “But the agency is still 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.” (Matthew Boyle, “EPA: Regulations Would Require 230,000 New Employees, $21 Billion,” The Daily Caller, 9/26/2011)

PERHAPS THIS IS WHAT PELOSI MEANT WHEN SHE SAID CAP-AND-TRADE WAS ABOUT “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS, JOBS”: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says her advocacy for cap-and-trade is all about ‘jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.’ But there’s no evidence that employment has grown anywhere in the world because of energy mandates such as cap-and-trade.” (Editorial, “Green Myths,” The Detroit News, 7/02/2009)

Meanwhile, a report out Monday shed light on resistance to the EPA’s job-destroying agenda even within some quarters of the Obama administration. In a leaked 2010 memo, one top Obama administration official predicted that new EPA rules would undercut the reliability of America’s electrical grid:

“EVEN SOME IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION” THINK EPA ACTIONS ARE “UNDERMINING THE SECURITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE U.S. ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY”: “The Environmental Protection Agency claims that the critics of its campaign to remake U.S. electricity are partisans, but it turns out that they include other regulators and even some in the Obama Administration. In particular, a trove of documents uncovered by Congressional investigators reveals that these internal critics think the EPA is undermining the security and reliability of the U.S. electric power supply.” (Editorial, “Inside the EPA,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/26/2011)

POWER OUTAGE: FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION (FERC) SAYS EPA GHG RULES “VERY LIKELY” WOULD ELIMINATE 8% OF U.S. POWER SUPPLY: “That 8% figure comes from FERC itself in a confidential 2010 assessment of the EPA’s regulatory bender—or about 81 gigawatts that FERC’s Office of Electric Reliability estimated is ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to enter involuntary retirement over the next several years. FERC disclosed the estimate in August in response to Senator Murkowski’s questions, along with a slew of memos and emails.” (Editorial, “Inside the EPA,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/26/2011)

FERC REQUESTED A “SAFETY VALVE” POLICY IN CASE EPA SHUTDOWNS LEAD TO MASS POWER BLACKOUTS: “Under pressure from Democrats and the EPA to disavow his own agency’s analysis, Mr. Wellinghoff now says that FERC favors only a‘safety valve’ that would give it the authority to overrule the EPA on a case-by-case basis if its regulations might lead to blackouts. But even this is a tacit admission of EPA’s overkill. You don’t need a safety valve if there isn’t a threat to safety.” (Editorial, “Inside the EPA,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/26/2011)

These are just the latest revelations of EPA’s job-destroying agenda, as new and pending regulations are projected to destroy millions more jobs on top of those they already have:

STUDY: NEW AND PENDING EPA RULES WILL DESTROY 1.65 MILLLION JOBS: “Over the period from 2012 to 2020, about 183,000 jobs per year are predicted to be lost on net due to the effects of the four regulations. The cumulative effects mean that over the period from 2012 to 2020, about 1.65 million job-years of employment would be lost.” (“Potential Impacts of EPA Air, Coal Combustion Residuals, and Cooling Water Regulations,”NERA Economic Consulting, September 2011)

EPA DESTROYED 500 JOBS IN TEXAS BY SHUTTING DOWN FACTORIES WITH NEW RULE: “Texas energy company Luminant announced on Monday new burdensome Environmental Protection Agency regulations are forcing it to close several facilities, which will result in about 500 job losses.

“The company will be idling — stopping the usage of — two energy generating units. It will also cease extracting lignite from three different Texas mines.” (Matthew Boyle, “EPA Regulation Forces Closure of Texas Energy Facilities, Eliminates 500 Jobs,” The Daily Caller, 9/12/2011)

WHITE HOUSE “STRONGLY OPPOSES” GOP EFFORT TO MAKE EPA STOP DESTROYING JOBS: “The White House Wednesday said it strongly opposes a House bill that would delay several Environmental Protection Agency rules on air pollution, setting up another showdown over Republican-led efforts to postpone the agency’s agenda.” (Ryan Tracy, “White House Opposes House Bill to Delay EPA Rules,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/21/2011)

EPA’S ESTIMATE OF GREEN JOBS “CREATED OR RETAINED” BY STIMULUS SHRANK TO JUST 7,140 JOBS. THE PRICETAG? $1 MILLION PER JOB AND $7.2 BILLION DOWN THE DRAIN. “President Obama’s green jobs agenda has become a victim of its own red tape. Several internal reports show that state-level projects have stalled for years due to federal regulations favored by labor and green groups — big boosters of the green jobs push.

“The reports offer a peek into the dysfunction within the White House’s green jobs initiative. In 2009, Obama dedicated $7.2 billion of stimulus funds to build “clean tech” jobs. He vowed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade.

“So far, that effort has ‘created or retained’ just 7,140 jobs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s about $1 million per job. The number is actually down from last year, when the EPA claimed 16,605 green jobs.” (Sean Higgins, “Davis-Bacon Clogs Green Jobs,” Investor’s Business Daily, 8/30/2011)