Obama’s EPA Continues War on Jobs

November 30, 2011

Democrats Continue Minting New Job-Destroying Regulations Despite Weak Economy

Despite setbacks in recent months, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is finding a second wind for its job-destroying regulatory rampage. Recently approved EPA rules are expected to cost $157 billion—and that’s by EPA’s own, conservative estimate.
Not only is Obama’s EPA proposing new rules that would destroy jobs, it is actively sabotaging new energy projects that would create jobs right now.
This anti-jobs obstinacy by the EPA comes amidst ongoing signals that the American economy is weak and struggling to create jobs.

BACKGROUND

Despite setbacks in recent months, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is finding a second wind for its job-destroying regulatory rampage. Recently approved EPA rules are expected to cost $157 billion—and that’s by EPA’s own, conservative estimate:

NEW EPA FUEL ECONOMY RULE TO COST ECONOMY AT LEAST $157 BILLION:“Under this new rule, America’s fleet of passenger cars and light trucks will have to meet an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, a doubling of today’s average of about 27 mpg. By the EPA’s estimate the rule will cost $157 billion, meaning the real number is vastly greater.” (Editorial, “The United States of EPA,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/28/2011)

CAR PRICE WILL INCREASE $3,100, VEHICLES $15,000 OR LESS WILL “EFFECTIVELY BE REGULATED OUT OF EXISTENCE”: “The National Automobile Dealers Association, which has opposed the EPA rule, has compiled Obama Administration documents showing the average price of a new vehicle will increase by $3,100 by 2025, thanks to the cumulative fuel-efficiency rules. Vehicles that currently cost $15,000 or less will effectively be regulated out of existence. The rule will reduce the mass of a car by 15% to 25%, decreasing safety.” (Editorial, “The United States of EPA,”The Wall Street Journal, 11/28/2011)

EPA EFFECTIVELY SEEKING TO IMPOSE JOB-DESTROYING REGULATIONS SO RADICAL THAT EVEN A DEMOCRAT CONGRESS COULDN’T PASS THEM: “The EPA is seeking to impose, by fiat, greenhouse gas reductions that even a Democratic Congress rejected with the Waxman-Markey bill in 2009, and that would drive policy at least 13 years past this Administration. It’s all more than a tad authoritarian. Welcome to the Obama-Jackson Presidency.” (Editorial, “The United States of EPA,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/28/2011)

NEW EPA COAL RULES WILL ADD “AT LEAST $18 BILLION IN COMPLIANCE COSTS BY 2020”: “One of them, which is aimed at coal-fired power plants that generate electricity, will add at least $18 billion in compliance costs by 2020.” (Editorial, “Obama’s EPA is Killing the Economy with Costly Rules,” The Washington Examiner, 11/26/2011)

TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY CENTER: “NEVER IN ITS 40-YEAR HISTORY HAS EPA PROMULGATED … SO MANY COSTLY NEW REGULATORY DICTATES”; “COULD COST MORE THAN $1 TRILLION,” DESTROY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS:“As Kathleen White of the Texas Public Policy Center told the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year, ‘never in its 40-year history has EPA promulgated — at the same time — so many costly new regulatory dictates. The rules on track to go into effect in the next three years could cost more than $1 trillion and result in hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.'” (Editorial, “Obama’s EPA is Killing the Economy with Costly Rules,” The Washington Examiner, 11/26/2011)

Not only is Obama administration proposing new rules that would destroy jobs, the EPA and other Obama agencies are actively sabotaging new energy projects that would create jobs right now:

EPA “PURPOSEFULLY SLOW-WALKING” PERMITTING FOR NEW ENERGY PROJECTS: “Jackson and her EPA minions have been purposefully slow-walking the agency’s already hideously complex process for approving permits in a crucial sector of the energy industry. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., asked the EPA inspector general to review the agency’s permitting process for surface mining permit applications in the Appalachian region over the last two years.” (Editorial, “Obama’s EPA is Killing the Economy with Costly Rules,” The Washington Examiner, 11/26/2011)

EPA INSPECTOR GENERAL FOUND THAT EPA PERMITS FOR SURFACE MINING WERE BEING DELAYED EXTENSIVELY: “The EPA IG found that of the 185 permit applications it identified, only 56, or less than one-third of the total, had been approved. Almost half of the 185 required at least 731 days for EPA to complete its evaluations. That compares with the 144 days EPA claims is its average evaluation period for all mining permit applications. At least a third of the 185 were simply withdrawn from consideration, presumably because the applicants despaired of ever getting a response from EPA.” (Editorial, “Obama’s EPA is Killing the Economy with Costly Rules,” The Washington Examiner, 11/26/2011)

OBAMA ADMIN DELAYS 200,000 JOBS FROM OHIO SHALE DRILLING PROJECT “IN DEFEFERENCE TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS”: “President Obama’s United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by cancelling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest (WNF). The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing.” (Joel Gehrke, “Obama USDA Delays Shale Drilling, Up to 200k Jobs,” The Washington Examiner, 11/18/2011)

EPA ANNOUNCES THAT IT IS STILL GOING THROUGH WITH NEW POWER PLANT RULES, DESPITE EARLIER DELAYS: “The top U.S. environmental regulator will propose early next year twice-delayed rules on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, she told the energyNOW television show.

” ‘I can’t tell you what the regulations say right now, but what we are planning to do is release them early next calendar year,’ Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, told the program in a segment seen by Reuters that is to be broadcast over the weekend.

“The EPA in June delayed the proposed rules on power plants, which are the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, saying it needed more time after talking with businesses, states and green groups. It delayed them again in September.”(Timothy Gardner, “EPA to Propose Utility Carbon Rules Next Year,” Reuters, 11/17/2011)

UTILITY MACT RULE IS PROJECTED TO COST 1.44 MILLION JOB-YEARS: “Some plants may shut their doors while others will sharply decrease production or abandon plans to expand their facility. The NERA study predicts that the United States will lose 1.44 million job-years (where one job is for one year) by 2020 should both regulations be finalized and implemented.” (Paul A. Yost, National Association of Manufacturers, 8/4/2011)

“OBAMA PUNTS KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE” UNTIL AFTER 2012 ELECTION: (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011)

KEYSTONE PROJECT WAS PROJECTED TO CREATE MORE THAN 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” JOBS: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011)

LONG-TERM JOBS IMPACT: UP TO 130,000 JOBS: “Many of those 20,000 jobs on the construction of the pipeline would have been filled by skilled union members. Eventually, the completed pipeline was expected to result in as many as 130,000 jobs, many of them on the upper Texas Coast, where the heavy oil would be refined into 700,000 barrels of oil daily.” (Editorial, “Keystone Pipeline is the Wrong Call,” The Houston Chronicle, 11/11/2011)

This anti-jobs obstinacy by the EPA comes amidst ongoing signals that the American economy is weak and struggling to create jobs:

STATE UNEMPLOYMENT “GENERALLY LITTLE CHANGED” IN OCTOBER: (“Regional and State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11/22/2011)

U.S. BUILDING INDUSTRY “HEADS FOR THE WEAKEST YEAR ON RECORD”: (Bob Willis, “Fewer New Homes Purchased than Forecast,” Bloomberg, 11/28/2011)

“CBO: STIMULUS HURTS ECONOMY IN THE LONG RUN”: “CBO said that while the Recovery Act boosted the economy in the short run, the extra debt that the stimulus piled up ‘crowds out’ private investment and ‘will reduce output slightly in the long run — by between 0 and 0.2 percent after 2016.'” (Stephen Dinan, “CBO: Stimulus Hurts Economy in the Long Run,” The Washington Times, 11/22/2011)