Cass Sunstein
The White House announced Friday that it is shelving a major planned Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would have tightened smog standards, dealing a huge blow to environmentalists that had pushed the Obama administration to resist industry pressure to abandon the regulation.
In a statement, President Obama said that the rule is being shelved because he is wary of imposing regulatory burdens during the economic recovery.
The decision follows immense pressure from industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, that had lobbied hard against the EPA decision to tighten Bush-era ozone standards.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the top regulatory official for the administration said Obama “does not support finalizing the [smog] rule at this time.”
“The president has instructed me to return this rule to you for reconsideration,” Cass Sunstein, the director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said in the letter.
The White House faced pressure from Republicans to abandon the smog standards. The rule was among 10 regulations that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had singled out for elimination in a recent memo laying out the GOP’s fall jobs campaign.
“This effective ban or restriction on construction and industrial growth for much of America is possibly the most harmful of all the currently anticipated Obama Administration regulations,” Cantor said in the memo.
The office of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the withdrawal of the rule “a good first step” toward reducing regulatory burdens on businesses, but said there is more to be done.
“This is certainly a good first step, and we’re glad that the White House responded to the Speaker’s letter and recognized the job-killing impact of this particular regulation. But it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stopping Washington Democrats’ agenda of tax hikes, more government ‘stimulus’ spending, and increased regulations — which are all making it harder to create more American jobs,” spokesman Michael Steel said.
“#GOP jobs push working,” a triumphant Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for Cantor, said Friday in a tweet after the withdrawal of the smog rule was announced.
At the Speaker’s request, Obama on Tuesday sent Boehner a list of seven regulations that will cost $1 billion or more to implement; the ozone rule was by far the costliest, at $19 billion to $90 billion.
“I was startled to learn that the EPA estimates that at least one of its proposed rules will cost our economy as much as $90 billion per year,” Boehner said of the smog rule in a letter to Obama on Aug. 26.
But EPA officials and environmentalists who pushed to tighten the smog standards had cited huge public health benefits.
Advocates call tougher standards rules vital to cutting pollution that aggravates respiratory problems like asthma and lung disease, damages vegetation and has other impacts.
League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski slammed the decision as a capitulation.
“The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the expense of protecting the air we breathe. This is a huge win for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health.”
Frank O’Donnell, head of the environmental group Clean Air Watch, called the decision “political cowardice” in an email Friday.
While EPA estimated that the strictest standard in the range under consideration — 60 parts per billion — would cost as much as $90 billion annually by 2020, the same analysis said this would bring $100 billion in annual benefits per year by 2020.
Obama praised the EPA’s work in Friday’s announcement, nothing that the agency has “taken some of the strongest actions since the enactment of the Clean Air Act four decades ago to protect our environment and the health of our families from air pollution.”
But the president said he is committed to reducing regulatory uncertainty for businesses, and cited an upcoming review of the ozone rule in 2013 as reason to delay it.
“Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered,” Obama said.
The president stressed that his commitment to protecting public health is “unwavering” and vowed that the White House will continue to resist GOP-led efforts to curtail the EPA’s authority.
“I will continue to stand with the hardworking men and women at the EPA as they strive every day to hold polluters accountable and protect our families from harmful pollution,” Obama said.
Industry groups that had lobbied the White House to scuttle the rule applauded the decision.
“The President’s decision is good news for the economy and Americans looking for work. EPA’s proposal would have prevented the very job creation that President Obama has identified as his top priority,” said American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard in a statement.
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