New EPA Regulations: Bad for Jobs, Good for Lives

Tomorrow the EPA plans to reveal important regulatory measures, dubbed  the New Source Performance Standards, which will set even lower limits on greenhouse gas emissions for energy plants. The NSPS regulations will only affect energy plants that are yet to be built, and gives current operational plants a thirty year time span to reduce emissions to the levels set by the NSPS. 

While the EPA maintains that the U.S Clean Air Act saved more than 160,000 lives in 2010 alone, critics of the new regulations argue that putting stricter controls on coal plants will increase energy costs and kill hundreds of jobs. U.S. Rep Ed Whitefield had this to say, "Affordable, reliable electricity is critical to keeping and growing jobs in the United States and such a standard will likely drive up energy prices and threaten domestic jobs."

Representative Whitefield is not alone in his criticisms of the EPA, and is joined by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity's CEO Steve Miller. In a press release today Miller announced the following: "Unfortunately, the EPA continues to ignore the real impact their rules will have on American families and businesses by driving up energy prices and destroying jobs.

“This is another, in a series of new regulations, written by EPA to prevent the U.S. from taking advantage of our vast coal resources that are responsible for providing affordable electricity for America’s families and businesses. This latest rule will make it impossible to build any new coal-fueled power plants, and could cause the premature closure of many more coal-fueled power plants operating today.

“So far, other EPA regulations are responsible for the announced closure of more than 140 electricity generating units in 19 states. The regulation EPA proposed today could raise the number of closures even higher and put more workers out of jobs.

“Rarely is there bipartisan agreement in Washington, D.C., but there is on this issue. This was evident when a bipartisan majority of U.S. House of Representatives recently wrote to President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget urging them to stop this economically-damaging rule.” 

Despite the outrage of American energy companies, it is difficult to dismiss the hundreds of thousands of lives saved by EPA regulatory efforts. In a 1997 EPA report to Congress a few crucial numbers shed a bit of humanitarian light on the issue. According to the 1997 EPA Report, the first 20 years of Clean Air Act programs, from 1970 –1990, led to the prevention in the year 1990 of:

 205,000 premature deaths

 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis

 21,000 cases of heart disease

 843,000 asthma attacks

 189,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations

 10.4 million lost I.Q. points in children – from lead reductions

 18 million child respiratory illnesses