The Obama Administration last week proposed new, increased powers for the Environmental Protection Agency, designed to promote public health by forcing a stricter control of smog producing pollutants.
The controls would put new costs on local governments and industry, creating much tougher standards than the Bush Administration had proposed in 2007, which had been criticized by environmental advocates and state governments.
It is estimated that the benefits to human health would be greater in economic terms than the cost to corporations, oil companies and utilities. Heart and lung disease deaths would be cut substantially, as would cases of bronchitis, asthma, and nonfatal heart attacks.
Of course, industry is unhappy, but this is the only way to start improving our environment’s air quality long term. Fines and loss of federal highway financing would be the methods to impose compliance. This is a great move that will be fully adopted after a period of two months, and go into effect between 2014-2031.