Air Pollution Rule Could Save $23 Billion ...

Spurred by regulations that require it to set air pollution levels based solely on health effects, the Environmental Protection Agency this June tightened allowable limits of ozone pollution in the air, the primary component of smog.

Today, it released a study estimating the costs and benefits of that proposed rule -- from decreased health care costs, increased cost of pollution controls on power plants, and the like. The result: The rule will result in a net savings of $23 billion! Environmental regulation is great! No, wait. It will result in a net loss of $20 billion!

Environmental regulation is a waste! "Because of the high degree of uncertainty in these calculations, EPA cannot estimate whether costs will outweigh benefits, or vice versa," the agency states in its fact sheet on the analysis.

"As the Agency improves its databases of control technologies and refines its understanding of the magnitude of the relationships between air pollution and premature mortality, EPA''s confidence in estimates of costs and benefits likely will improve."

Highlight on the plus side:

• Hundreds of lives saved from premature death due to exposure to ozone and particulate pollution:
  $2.5 billion to $33 billion per year.

Highlights on the minus side:

• Cost of pollution control technology:
  $3.9 billion per year, including $200 million for utilities and $730 million for transportation.

o read the EPA fact sheet, click here.

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