You’ll have a handful of isolated instances. Probably almost all of them new. None of them affecting all businesses. Probably none of them affecting all manufacturing, except maybe indirectly through energy prices.
Also, earlier you mentioned China not forcing blended fuels. Okay, but a gallon of gasoline in California which is usually a high price state is still cheaper than a gallon of gasoline in China. So even though we have regs affecting the price, it still hasn’t put us at a disadvantage to China.
The wage differentials are the key. And that alone requires us to protect our market, unless we want to see every industry that can be moved off-shore, moved offshore.
Ah, but do you remember what I said about America's competitive advantages?
America can't compete on wages, but wages are not the most significant cost component for thousands of products and services.
But where America does enjoy advantages - such as the fuel cost disparity you mention - it's being thrown away.
That fuel cost disparity isn't as much as it could be - and therefore isn't decisive in bringing work back to the US because of the uplift attached by aging refineries (aging due to EPA rules), Ethanol blends (EPA rules) and fuel taxes (sheer bloody-minded Government).
This is why Eagle Diesel is so exciting. Extremely cheap energy in America's heartland. It has the potential to change everything. If anything can bring industry back to the US DESPITE the EPA, Obamacare, etc, etc it is America's natural gas revolution.
The Left - who I feel I should mention are not our friends - are doing their damnedest to stamp out fracking before America shakes loose from their control.