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Legislation to derail the EPA's regulatory ability is misguided Date published: 9/25/2011
SOMETIMES bipartisanship cloaks something else, as when a Republican and a Democrat share sponsorship of a bill to cripple the Environmental Protection Agency. Populating the ranks of a virtually exclusive GOP anti-EPA club is Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah). He and John Sullivan (R-Okla.) have co-sponsored the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act. The legislation would require a broad cost analysis of major new rules recently proposed by the environmental agency. The bill is the latest expression of the idea that the economic burden that pollution abatement places on business outweighs the value of a cleaner and healthier environment. Moreover, the philosophic impetus behind such legislation is that the EPA is a waste of money and that corporations can be trusted environmental stewards. (Shh! Let's not talk about Love Canal, the Exxon Valdez, and Deepwater Horizon.) Despite the stated, lofty objective of determining--via "interagency analysis"--for example, the cost of an EPA clean-air policy versus a company's costs and loss of ability to hire new workers (something the government already does in nonpartisan fashion), it is merely a ruse to bog down and halt the EPA's regulatory process. Lost on those trying to kill the EPA Specifically, regulations imperiled by such legislation are the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which reduces power-plant pollutants, and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, which cuts the heavy-metal content of power plants fueled by coal and oil. Both regs not only reduce illness in affected areas, they create jobs in technology. If there is any goal Americans should share, it is to expedite the path toward cleaner air and water. Who doesn't want a healthier, longer life? Stop this TRAIN, because our children are tied to the tracks.
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