Opinion: New EPA Standards will Kill Missouri Jobs

by Rusty Kahrs

Before the end of the year, the US Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue new national ozone standards that could post a huge threat to jobs and economic growth in Missouri.

in 2008, the EPA lowered the ozone standard from 80 parts per billion (ppb) to 75 ppb. The decision came after years of careful study and analysis and following a normal rulemaking process that allowed stakeholders to participate. Over the last two years, Missouri and the businesses affected by the new standard have worked hard to meet it.

Now the EPA wants to lower the standard again, to between 60 and 70 ppb. This time, though, the agency intends to act without conducting any new research or a proper rulemaking process. A lower standard may seem to make sense from a public health point of view, but the economic costs would far outweigh the very minor health benefits.

Under the Clean Air Act, areas that do not meet ozone standards are considered to be "non-attainment." If the standard is lowered below 70 ppb, all of Missouri's urban areas and many of the state's other counties would be non-attainment areas. (So would many national parks, by the way.)

Non-attainment status brings serious consequences:

--Major manufacuring companies that want to invest in facilities will be required to offset any new ozone emissions and install maximum emission reduction technology, potentially inhibiting economic development and job growth.

--Missouri may lose federal funding for highway and transit projects if the state cannot demonstrate that the projects will not increase ozone emissions.

--Missouri businesses will be less competitive because they would have to make costly investments in emissions reductions, which could rise to as much as $2.4 billion, according to a study by NERA and Sierra Research, two independent consulting firms.

The study also found that a 60 ppb standard imposed today would eliminate 68,000 jobs in Missouri that otherwise would have been created by 2020. The study also reported that a 60 ppb standard would cut the gross regional product by $6.1 billion and reduce disposable income by $3.2 billion.

Even if Missouri businesses and individuals installed every available emission control to limit ozone emissions, the Missouri Energy Forum estimates that the state would only achieve 12% of the necessary ozone reduction. We may not be able to meet the EPA's proposed lower standard no matter how hard we try.

Everyone wants cleaner air. What we don't want or need is an unnecessary and unprecedented federal rulemaking that will cost jobs, destroy the economic recovery, and devastate businesses in our state.

We need our elected officials in Washington to force the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to step back, engage in a proper rulemaking process, consider both the costs and benefits of what it has proposed to do, and communicate them to the general public. Missourians deserve no less.

Rusty Kahrs is the Presiding County Commissioner in Pettis County and Chair of the Missouri Energy Forum.