Business groups: EPA regulations stifling

The Environmental Protection Agency is a popular target for companies and business groups asked about what government rules and regulations they consider burdensome. 

On Monday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released hundreds of pages of responses to a letter he sent asking for input on regulations. The release of the documents comes as the oversight panel is getting set to host a Thursday hearing on the impact of regulations on job creation.

It also comes not long after President Obama announced that he was signing an executive order that would seek to get rid of outdated regulations that harm economic growth.

In addition to the EPA, the groups that responded to Issa’s entreaty also hit at regulations dealing with overhauls of healthcare and financial regulations.

The EPA drew the ire of industry groups such as the Aluminum Association and the American Chemistry Council, as well as groups with more broad interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. 

Many of the responses criticized an EPA proposal that seeks to reduce harmful emissions from boilers, with organizations such as the Textile Rental Services Association of America and the American Forest and Paper Association saying the plan would place thousands of jobs in their field at risk.

The Chamber of Commerce said the boiler plan, as well as regulations on greenhouse gases and the ozone, have an “overwhelming” cumulative impact.

“The result: industries are effectively regulated out of business,” wrote William Kovacs, the Chamber’s senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs. 

The Business Roundtable, meanwhile, also slammed parts of the Dodd-Frank legislation on financial-system reform, saying some provisions are burdensome and costly and “do not constitute ‘reform’ in any recognizable sense.”

The group took aim at, among other things, a provision that requires companies to compare their chief executive’s pay to that of the median of the whole company and a proposed rule that would provide financial considerations to whistleblowers who deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Issa and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the oversight panel’s ranking member, have had a public back-and-forth over the committee’s approach to investigating regulations. And, if the response to Monday’s release is any indication, that wrangling could continue in the weeks and months to come.

In a statement accompanying the documents' release, Issa said that “policymakers often hear anecdotal examples from job creators about how government regulations impede the type of permanent, private-sector job creation necessary to successfully lower unemployment.”

“This project,” he added, “is an opportunity for private industry to put forward detailed and specific examples so that both the American people and policymakers can determine for themselves what actions can be taken to create jobs.”

For his part, Cummings called for a balance between pushing for job creation and measures that protect health and safety.

“Only by working in a bipartisan way will we achieve this balance,” Cummings said in a statement. “Although the majority requested only information regarding the potential costs of regulation – and no information regarding the key benefits to health and safety – we stand ready to work together on a more comprehensive approach in the future.”