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Townhall
Finance...
President
Scuttles One Reg...More to
Go?
By Marita Noon
9/5/11
This
week President Obama announced,
“I have requested that Administrator Jackson withdraw the draft Ozone
National
Ambient Air Quality Standards at this time.”
Just
hours before, the worst jobs
numbers in a year were released.
Coincidence?
Or campaign
strategy?
Business
and industry groups have been
beating the drum regarding the EPA’s excessive regulations and their
impact on
the struggling American economy. The EPA has already backed down from
their
foolish attempt to apply oil-spill regulations to spilled milk on dairy
farms.
Now common sense and economic necessity can chalk up another win.
At
Townhall, we have been alerting the
public to the disastrous impacts these over-reaching regulations will
have on
energy costs--which will have an adverse effect on the overall economy
and
raise personal energy bills for consumers. High energy prices
disproportionately hurt the poor as they increase prices on all basic
necessities. We’ve been encouraging people to contact their local,
state, and
federal elected officials to express their ire over the EPA’s actions.
Obviously, the push back is making a difference.
The
EPA, and many other agencies, have
been pushing one-size-fits-all regulations with little regard for the
unique
socio-economic or geographic circumstances found in the various regions
of the
country. While clean-up was needed in the seventies when America looked
like
China looks today, we have long ago reached the law of diminishing
returns when
it comes to EPA regulations--they cost more money, kill more jobs, and
produce
less bang-for-the-buck. What used to be America’s manufacturing base,
formally
known as the “rust belt,” is now the “unemployment belt.”
This
announcement is a victory for
American citizens and should serve as encouragement to them to continue
to keep
the pressure on our elected officials--even when it feels like we are a
lone
voice crying in the wilderness.
It
is interesting that this decision
was announced just days after a GAO report was released revealing that
environmental groups were getting rich by filing lawsuits forcing the
EPA to
more strictly enforce regulations, and after the third solar
manufacturer in
thirty days filed bankruptcy...
Read
the rest of the column at
Townhall Finance
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