The White House on Friday instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel a planned rule to tighten the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards that regulate smog.
The following statements, from environment and energy policy experts at The Heartland Institute, maybe used for attribution. For further comments, please refer to the contact information below.
To book any of these experts on your program, contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] or 312/377-4000. After hours, contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] or 312/731-9364.
“While President Obama’s announcement that he is withdrawing EPA’s draft ozone standards is a welcome development, EPA continues down the path of economic destruction by imposing costly carbon dioxide restrictions in the name of fighting speculative global warming. If the president is serious about relieving EPA’s oppressive burden on America’s economy, he will call off the dogs regarding EPA’s carbon dioxide restrictions, as well.”
James M. Taylor
Senior fellow for Environmental Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Abandoning the proposed smog standard is a good move, but the weight of government on the economy is still much too oppressive. Unless the president begins to roll back the countless regulatory oversteps he has already taken, along with those his predecessors imposed, the monthly jobs reports will continue to look like the one we just got for August – zero net new jobs, widespread long-term unemployment, and further economic stagnation.”
S.T. Karnick
Director of Research
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“This move is a fake to the right by the Obama administration and a superficial and deceptive one at that. EPA has unleashed a wrecking ball of new regulations that will jeopardize our supply of electricity by putting many coal-fired electrical power plants out of business. The set of ozone regulations withdrawn today is only one part of them.
“The others, still scheduled to become effective, limit mercury and greenhouse gas emissions and regulate water intake and coal ash, among other things. These regulations, it was recently disclosed, were published without any serious review of their impact on electrical supply and power costs to consumers.
“The revocation of the ozone regulations today doesn’t mean Obama is revoking his pledge that the cost of electricity will ‘necessarily skyrocket.’ “
Maureen Martin
Senior Fellow for Legal Affairs
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
(Note: One of Ms. Martin’s areas of expertise is environmental law.)
“It is refreshing to see that President Obama has finally taken notice of the burdensome regulatory environment that has contributed to the uncertainty that has stifled economic growth across the country.
“The president has continually given lip service to regulatory reform, but he must back those words up with actions that properly balance the needs of people with those of the environment. Given our nation’s bleak unemployment picture, the need for this to happen is more urgent than ever.
“The president will have the opportunity to join the bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives that has worked to highlight the costs of these regulations during his joint address to Congress next week, and I sincerely hope he lays out tangible proposals that do so.”
John Monaghan
Legislative Specialist for Environmental Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, call 312/377-4000.
Maureen Martin, a former legal fellow at The Heartland Institute, passed away on February 5, 2013.
S. T. Karnick is a senior fellow and director of publications for The Heartland Institute.
