Posted on 12/10/2014 4:09:11 PM PST by OneLoyalAmerican
With the release of EPA’s 600-plus page proposal on ozone, all attention turns to the fine details of such an expansive regulation. American Action Forum (AAF) research found that 100 national and state parks might not the meet EPA’s standards of 60-70 parts per billion (ppb). Hardly transportation corridors and centers of heavy pollution, many observers would be surprised to know that Death Valley National Park, Sequoia National Park, and Cape Cod National Seashore have ozone readings of 71 to 87 ppb.
The map below details the geographic distribution of state and national parks in danger of EPA’s non-attainment label for ozone.
It’s not entirely clear how these levels would be addressed at national parks. It’s likely the state’s responsibility to address ozone concentrations at parks within their borders. Even though these parks don’t contain large manufacturing facilities or refineries, states will have to find ways to address each county that is in non-attainment.
What is clear is the price tag: $15 billion at the 65 ppb threshold. EPA is more than frank that this is one of the most expensive regulations ever, but they offer some solace: there are half a dozen other major recent regulations that will help states meet this expensive new standard. Here’s how EPA explains the situation:
“Existing and proposed federal rules, including the final Mercury and Air Toxics Standards [MATS], the final Tier 3 Vehicle Emissions and Fuels Standards, requirements to reduce the interstate transport of ozone [CSAPR], Regional Haze rules, and the proposed Clean Power Plan, will help states meet the proposed standards by making significant strides toward reducing ozone-forming pollution.”
In other words, there are so many other major rules in the regulatory world on emissions standards that overlap, they might make it easier to comply with the new ozone measure. Tallying costs for the litany of the past rules reveals outrageously high burdens. Here is the real cost of EPA’s ozone approach:
CSAPR: $1.85 Billion MATS: $10 Billion Standards for Particulate Matter: $350 Million Tier 3 Fuel Standards: $1.5 Billion Proposed Clean Power Plan: $8.8 Billion Latest Ozone Proposal: $15 billion Total Cost of Recent Proposals: $37.5 Billion
To put this $37.5 billion in perspective, it’s roughly seven times higher than the cost of all major rules issued in fiscal year 2011, according to the White House. $37.5 billion is almost as high as the entire bill for all major rules issued from 1999 to 2009, according to the White House. These recent regulations, coupled with an ozone rule that doesn’t even spare national parks, is a decade’s worth of regulating in just four or five years.
It’s likely these rules would add another layer of compliance for power plants and manufacturing facilities just as they have to deal with MATS and EPA’s incredibly complex Clean Power Plan. On one hand, plants have to add technology to capture emissions, which requires more energy and reduces efficiency. On the other hand, the Clean Power Plan will mandate that plants increase their efficiency to reduce greenhouse gases. As AAF commented to EPA, “Achieving efficiency gains while adding additional environmental protections unrelated to the Clean Power Plan may not be possible for the fleet.” Conclusion
The notion that EPA’s ozone regulation will affect just dirty power plants and manufacturing facilities is farce. In fact, many of the dirtiest power plants have already closed from MATS and CSAPR. These new regulations will hit states, their parks, national wildlife refuges, and countless pending construction projects across the U.S. The price tag from this rule isn’t just $15 billion; it’s closer to $37 billion and it’s likely that states and businesses won’t know the full burden for years.
/johnny
I a sensible society, these people that work at agencies like this would be confined in mental help facilities.
Looney bin material ready to harm all they touch.
Hold the calls. We have a winner!
How does a park fail to pass ozone regs? They are outdoors!
It won't end well.
/johnny
ozone released by evil minerals in the soil?
its all bush’s fault anyway
Greetings JRandomFreeper:
Promotion of junk science is the norm at EPA. Tree huggers apparently don’t know trees naturally produce ozone. Ozone, that’s why the Great Smokey Mountains are - smokey.
Cheers,
OLA
Who died and made the EPA god?
Shut this sucker down.
It’s because of all of those evil human tourists visiting those parks. We need to close those parks to all human travel except for the anointed elite few. Everyone else would be forbidden to travel outside of their home county.
/sarcasm
Greetings DoughtyOne:
My Congressman Bill Johnson cosponsored legislation reeling in the EPA. Bill passed the House, languishes in the Senate.
We’ll see what happens next session.
Cheers,
OLA
The propensity for the EPA personnel, especially the top ‘gunners’, to make words mean what they intend has been going on for years in their rule makings. What would a person expect from an organization created to make Nixon look like a ‘good’ guy.
by adding small amounts of ozone theraphtylate to the fuel of the park service vehicles, O1 will be emitted and soak up the offending O3 ions
The inherent problem is not releasing too much and bringing the O3 level down too much so as to endanger the liverwort populations or the Cresus difinium insects dependent on the liverwort diet.
Although parts of the 1983 SCU study has been refuted, it is also feared that the alien red saw grass ( Escunious roufus) in the coastal region parks will benefit and become uncontrollable when the O3 level is reduced. All efforts to reduce the alien sawgrass encroachment have failed.
Poor old ozone. It cleans the pollutants and they treat it like crap.
Regulators are the defacto fourth branch of gov’t and are not accountable to citizens.
The EPA needs to be disbanded and all their workers prohibited from and future public employment.
Without ozone, we all would be dead.
You seem to have a great grasp of EPA pseudoscience.
Nicely done.
Besides, it is "Locally Grown!"
"Free Range!"
"Organic!"
"Carbon Neutral!"
"No-Trans-fats, Low-Sodium!"
"Biodegradable?"
OZONE!
(*&^%$% bunch of idiots - Congress, for not cleaning out this nest of evil idiots known as the EPA)
Too many darned trees -- clear-cut 'em. That'll fix it.
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