On Thanksgiving Eve last week, while college kids were hitting the bars in their hometowns and families were busy with Thanksgiving preparations, the Obama administration quietly released its updated schedule for a bevy of new regulations. The timing implies the senior staff of the administration are a bit sheepish about the contents of this regulatory agenda, including an updated rule on ozone emissions that some industry groups have called “the most expensive regulation in history.”
It is unclear why this new expensive regulation is even necessary, considering the 2008 revisions already comply with the EPA’s statutory requirement to protect public health. EPA regulations are far from perfect; in an ideal world, President Obama and Congress should agree upon market-friendly, price-based replacements for the Clean Air Act’s heavy-handed regulation. Barring that, the EPA at least needs to stop moving the goalpost every time businesses are about to meet it.
