New EPA Regulations: Bad for Jobs, Good for the Environment

Today the EPA revealed important regulatory measures, dubbed the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), which puts further restrictions 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."

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

Lisa Jackson, the EPA Administrator, went before Congress last week urging Representatives to look at the big picture. She readily admitted that while some restrictions may stunt short term job creation, they will inevitably save lives in the long haul. I

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