Heather Denny: Costly new EPA standard

Regarding the Aug. 15 Point of View “Cooper’s puzzling EPA stance”: With North Carolina’s economy still struggling, the federal government must avoid enacting regulations that negatively affect businesses and economic growth.

The EPA is proposing to lower the ozone standard from 75 parts per billion to 65 ppb. Unfortunately, the EPA is ignoring many likely unintended outcomes from enforcing its proposed rule, which holds the private sector to unrealistic standards.

An example of how stringent this new proposal is, even Yellowstone National Park would fall short of the regulations. More than three-quarters of North Carolina’s counties would be in “non-attainment.”

Businesses across the private sector will be forced to make major changes to how they build and operate their equipment to comply with this rule. Coal, manufacturing, agriculture and construction are just some of the industries that will face massive increases in operating costs. There will be fewer resources to hire and pay workers as a result.

Making the cost of producing energy or electricity more expensive, which this proposal would do, also means higher prices for consumers, many of whom live on fixed incomes. Our leaders in Washington need to prevent the EPA from making this rule a reality.

This story was originally published August 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Heather Denny: Costly new EPA standard."