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EPA: Clean Air Act will save trillions of dollars
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Last month, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 1, which, among other spending cuts, significantly reduces funding to the Environmental Protection Agency.
While the bill currently awaits Senate approval – not to mention President Barack Obama – it is seen as both a firm commitment to both reducing federal spending and balancing the national deficit, as well as a symbolic attempt by Republicans to curb the regulatory powers of the EPA.
However, the EPA released a study this week that shows how harmful the proposed cuts could be to the health and well-being of Americans. The report claims that the benefits of reducing fine particle and ground level ozone pollution in accordance with the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act will save the government $2 trillion by 2020 while also preventing more than 230,000 early deaths in that year alone.
The study's findings were determined according to the effects of the CAA on the economy, public health and the environment since 1990 and projections until 2020.
"The Clean Air Act's decades-long track record of success has helped millions of Americans live healthier, safer and more productive lives," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "This report outlines the extraordinary health and economic benefits of one of our nation's most transformative environmental laws and demonstrates the power of bipartisan approaches to protecting the health of the American people from pollution in our environment."
The report was reviewed by the Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis, which is an independent, Congress-approved panel of economists, scientists and public health experts.
Hugh Joyce – president of James River Air Conditioning in Richmond, Virginia – responded.
"The EPA's efforts to regulate greenhouse gases will substantially enlarge the regulated community, increase standards to near impossible levels and impose severe paperwork and compliance burdens on small business owners at a time when America's small businesses can least afford it," Joyce said, according to Bloomberg.
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