The EPA's Approaching Regulatory Avalanche -- Texas Public Policy Foundation

The EPA's Approaching Regulatory Avalanche, a report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds that there has been increasing regulatory activity on the part of the EPA and that the cumulative effect of these EPA rules which are scheduled to become effective in the next three years could cost more than $1 trillion and destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs.

"Four of the rules, directed at electric generation, threaten the fundamental viability of continued
coal-fired generation—now the mainstay of the nation’s electric power. The Federal Energy Reliability Commission (FERC), the National Electric Reliability Council (NERC), and multiple studies conclude that these four EPA rules risk the involuntary retirement of over 80 gigawatts (GW) of electric capacity by 2015.  The possibility of losing up to 8 percent of the country’s current 1,010 GW of electric generating capacity should be a wake-up call as to the magnitude of EPA’s regulatory agenda. On EPA’s current schedule, there is not sufficient lead time to replace this amount of the nation’s electric power supply.

Power outages, higher electric rates, job losses, sharply regressive impacts on families with low or fixed incomes, and the relocation of U.S. industries to foreign countries are highly likely outcomes under EPA’s regulatory plan.

This paper reviews 10 EPA rules now adopted, proposed, or scheduled for proposal:

1. Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR);

2. Electric Utility Maximum Available Control Technology Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (Utility MACT);

3. Industrial Boiler MACT;

4. Portland Cement Kiln MACT;

5. Cooling Water Intake Structure Rule (CWIS);

6. Coal Combustion Residuals Rule (CCR);

7. Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS);

8. Particulate Matter (PM) NAAQS;

9. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Regulation of Stationary Sources;

10. GHG