This blog leads the league in posts about EPA’s Regional Haze power grab. In a nutshell, the Agency is usurping the States’ rightful authority to set visibility improvement policy pursuant to a Clean Air Act provision known as Regional Haze.
EPA’s actions are out-of-bounds for two reasons: (1) The legal and regulatory history of the Regional Haze rule unequivocally demonstrates that the States—and not federal regulators—are the lead decision-makers; and (2) EPA’s preferred controls cost billions more than the States’ controls, in order to achieve a visibility “improvement” that is invisible to the naked eye.
To date, EPA’s has imposed nearly $400 million annually in unjustified costs on New Mexico, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. The Agency has proposed to impose almost $120 million per year in costs beyond what Wyoming and Nebraska officials had deemed to be appropriate. Arkansas, Utah, Arizona and Minnesota are next.
I’ve written regulatory filings, studies, opeds, and blogs about EPA’s Regional Haze program, and last week I was invited to testify about it before the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. My written testimony can be found here or here. Below, I’ve pasted video of my opening statement.
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I have not heard of this before but it sounds like more EPA interference where there is no discernable problem that needs correcting. As an old pilot who has spent the majority
of his life in the western states, visibility is mainly related to how much moisture vapor is in the atmosphere. I think this troublesome bureau is becoming more irrelevant daily.
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