Restoring balance to America's regulations

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce looked at the cost of regulations in America and found that excessive protocols are undercutting our economy and costing us jobs.

Federal rules alone have exploded, and the Chamber says they cost $1.7 trillion. Unwarranted state labor and employment mandates resulted in a 700,000-job loss. On the other hand, paring back state regulations which exceed federal standards now spawns 50,000 new businesses each year.

The Chamber report does not indict government regulations, per se. Most regulations serve a good purpose, but regulatory overreach is a job killer.

For example, we all want to fly safely, and air traffic controllers are there to enforce stringent rules and well-tested procedures. Health inspections in restaurants, grocery stores and medical facilities are other examples of necessary government rules.

But it is the overreach of government which seems more prevalent today. They can require unachievable standards even with today's technology. Mandating them impacts the American people---job losses, squandered investment opportunities, and higher prices for our products and services.

However, last month our nation's Supreme Court sharply cut federal agencies' powers to interpret the laws they administer. By a 6-3 vote, the justices ruled the courts, not bureaucrats, must be the interpreter.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a plethora of new air emission standards clamping down on all sources from homes to factories. Sweeping new rules come under the heading of "Climate Change."

For example, EPA's air standards for biomass boilers which burn wood wastes to generate electricity are so stringent they kill projects. These facilities incinerate dead, diseased and scrap wood which, if left in our forests, fuel wildfires.

Biomass plants are engineered and built to capture air pollutants. However, once forest fires ignite, there are no pollution controls to trap greenhouse gases, collect ash and abate choking smoke.

Creating jobs, manufacturing goods, and producing energy should be no brainers! So, why the wall of red tape? Lawmakers sometimes demand it.

For example, the late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) wanted EPA to clamp down even harder on cement plants. She failed to recognize that American cement producers already reduced their emissions by 60 percent. It is a work in progress. Much of the air pollution comes from other places around the world.

China, the world's leader in exporting cement, and India account for two-thirds of the worldwide cement manufacturing and their facilities do not have the same levels of pollution controls.

United States producers account for four percent of the global cement and when including related industries such as concrete, the number of employees is 535,000 with a payroll of approximately $25 billion.

A primary reason is the balance between jobs and regulations is tipped toward severely restricting or eliminating projects which burn carbon-based fuels---natural gas, oil, coal and even wood wastes.

Those rules, while primarily directed at energy projects, also heavily impact the industrial sector, which encompasses manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and construction. That sector accounted for almost a third of total U.S. energy use.

Reducing emissions takes time and money. U.S. manufacturers and farmers compete globally. Our competitors operate in countries with lower environmental standards than ours. In turn, those companies export lower cost products to the U.S.

Like many American industries, the technology to avoid and clean-up water and air emissions is evolving. There is technology in the United Kingdom which will eliminate 95 percent of the emissions from manufacturing cement.

The bottom line is we all want clean air, and we do not want Beijing's smog or suffocating pollution. The question is how to improve regulations without crippling our economy, tossing people out of work, and keeping jobs here in America.

- Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He can be contacted at [email protected].