The Environmental Protection Agency, bowing to pressure from business interests, has scaled back new clean-air rules to make it easier and less expensive for operators of industrial boilers and incinerators to meet federal requirements.
As The New York Times reports, the move announced Wednesday replaces a proposal made last year that, critics said, would have been burdensome for business.
Still, the agency said the new approach will produce nearly the same health gains that the earlier proposal would have achieved. Officials said air pollution would be reduced enough to save up to an estimated 6,600 lives per year by 2014, while also preventing 4,100 heart attacks and 42,000 asthma attacks annually.
Gina McCarthy, director of the air and radiation office of the EPA, said the new rules “are realistic, they are achievable, and they are reasonable, and they come at roughly half the cost to comply compared to that in the proposed rule in May 2010.”
McCarthy said that the cost of the new plan would be $2.1 billion per year, and that it would create 2,000 new jobs. One study of the old proposal, financed by the energy industry, tallied the costs at more than $20 billion and 300,000 lost jobs.
The move follows President Obama’s announcement in January of an executive order calling for a government-wide review of environmental, health and safety regulations to eliminate rules that hinder economic growth. The Times noted that the boiler rule changes could signal a more relaxed approach ahead by the administration on upcoming clean-air requirements for power plants and greenhouse gas emissions.
Bob Bessette, president of the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners, said it still isn’t clear whether the newly proposed EPA requirements, which are subject to further review, can be met at a reasonable cost. Even so, he said, “This is a good plan given our nation’s current economic challenges. It makes much more sense for EPA and all stakeholders to revisit key challenges, take additional time and get the rule right.”
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