Friday, August 5, 2011

EPA Attempts Hostile Takeover in North Dakota

by Sean Hackbarth

EPA is not satisfied with imposing costly, job-killing regulations at the federal level. Now, it wants to take over North Dakota’s federally authorized regional haze program because it doesn't think the state's rules will be tough enough to regulate two power plants. This is the second time EPA has invaded state jurisdiction over clean air, following last summer’s decision by EPA to invalidate large portions of Texas’s air permitting programs. Talk about a regulatory agency in Washington thinking it knows better.

Like rules being imposed in Texas, this action by EPA seems, in the words of the chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, as "intended not so much to improve the environment as to impose unnecessary, expensive federal controls on industry and to increase the costs of energy to citizens."

Unlike much of the country, North Dakota is experiencing an economic boom from oil development and agriculture. You know that story about a goose laying golden eggs? North Dakota has a good thing going. EPA shouldn't mess with what is working there.

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