Obama Asks EPA to Withdraw Ozone Standards
QBy Roger Runningen and Mark Drajem - Sep 2, 2011 10:58 AM ET .
www.bloomberg.comObama Asks EPA to Withdraw Ozone Ambient Air Quality Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The San Francisco skyline is barely visible through hazy smoke-filled air from Sausalito, California. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
.President Barack Obama said he’s directed the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw proposed rules to limit ozone emissions that lead to smog.
The draft rules have been faulted by Republicans and business leaders who contended the regulations would be too costly to implement. Obama said in a statement he is seeking to reduce regulatory burdens as the economy recovers.
“Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered,” Obama said today in a statement. The rules will come up for a regular review in 2013, he said.
The EPA’s proposed regulations for ground-level ozone, a main ingredient of smog, would have tightened those issued during President George W. Bush’s administration in 2008. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson had said that those rules wouldn’t stand up to legal scrutiny. The EPA’s proposal would have cost the economy $19 billion to $90 billion, making it the most expensive new regulation under consideration by the Obama administration, according to the White House.
“The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the expense of protecting the air we breathe,” Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group, said today in an e-mailed statement. “This is a huge win for corporate polluters and a huge loss for public health.”
Business group representatives had met Aug. 16 with White House Chief of State William Daley to push their case for scrapping the ozone changes. They said the costs would be much greater than the administration estimated.
“Environmental concerns are legitimate, but sometimes the cost these policies impose is very significant,” said Phil Levy, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and an economist in the Bush administration. “To the extent he’s moving to balancing them more carefully, that should be applauded.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
