Barton hits EPA on Clear Air rule costs

The top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of rolling out air pollution rules that will cost various industries billions of dollars without fully weighing the economic effects.

“Just as appropriate implementation of the Clean Air Act is essential for protecting public health, appropriate consideration of the economic and employment impacts of regulations under the Act is essential for protecting the nation’s economic health,” Committee ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said in a letter to EPA Thursday. Burgess is the top GOP member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

The letter, which cites persistently high unemployment, underscores the how Republicans are seizing on the economy to criticize looming greenhouse gas rules and other EPA measures.

The letter — accompanied by a detailed chart of pending and final rules — notes that at least eight of them have estimated compliance costs of above $1 billion. It cites rules such as proposed ozone standards, final vehicle greenhouse gas standards and proposed rules to limit power plant emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, among others.

“We are concerned about the highly accelerated pace at which EPA is issuing complex and expensive regulatory proposals,” states the letter, which questions whether businesses will be able to absorb thousands of pages of proposals and the “workability” of the measures.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson recently said opponents of Clean Air Act rules have long warned of “doomsday” scenarios, when in fact the benefits of programs under the statute have far outweighed the costs.