In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a 95
percent reduction in emissions of nitrous oxide for heavy-duty diesel engines to
take effect in 2010. According to the EPA’s in-house cost-benefit analysis,
this reduction would prevent, among other things, 8,300 premature deaths,
23,100 cases of chronic bronchitis, 360,000 asthma attacks, and 386,000 cases of
respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children every year. Over ten years, almost 100 thousand people
would be around who would otherwise be underground! EPA cost-benefiters monetized
annual benefits of its regulation at $66.2 billion versus a paltry annual cost
of $4.2 billion. What a marvel! We can save all these lives and prevent all
these illnesses at virtually no cost to anyone.
Come
2010, Navistar, the third largest seller of heavy duty trucks and employer of
4,000 manufacturing workers failed to meet the EPA’s nitrous-oxide standards. Its
competitors, largely foreign owned, complied. They are no longer killing people
and making children sick, like Navistar.
Instead of shutting Navistar heavy-duty truck division down until it
meets its nitrous oxide standards, the EPA substituted a fine ($1919 per
vehicle) in January of this year, which allowed Navistar to continue to produce
and sell non-compliant trucks.
Using
the EPA’s own figures, I calculate that Navistar’s “non-compliance penalty”
will cause 2,075 premature deaths, 5,772 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 90,000 asthma attacks in 2012 alone – a small
price to pay for 1,200 manufacturing jobs in an election year. (My calculations use Navistar’s share of the
heavy truck market and the fact that heavy-duty trucks account for about a
third of its business).
A very powerful speech by Marco Rubio (June 25, 2012)---Mitt Romney is a lucky Presidential Candidate:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMcaqd34u20
Compare Rubio's speech with:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/white-house-scolds-guests-flipped-off-reagan-portrait-134016173.html
The link does not work. But, Google "White House scolds guests who flipped off Reagan portrait" to get there.
ReplyDeleteWhile President Reagan's adherence to the principles by which our nation was founded upon let to our liberation from malaise and self-doubt, it set the bar for civility and leadership fairly high. Nonetheless, he helped Tip O'Neill to rise to the occasion. This produced the foundation for the reform and the subsequent economic, social, psychological, and global expansion of our exceptional way of life.
The EPA over-regulates by setting standards that are outrageously expensive for the lives actually saved. That is, safety is achieved at standards which are much less strict.
ReplyDeleteFor example, eating 150 grams of table salt (5 ounces) might kill 50% of the participants. The EPA would conclude that eating 1/1000th of that amount (.15 grams, 1/30th of a teaspoon) would kill .001 X 50% = 50 per 100,000 people exposed. The regulated level for table salt would need to be one million times less than that to assure safe levels of exposure to table salt.
The EPA's political willingness to accomodate Navistar, at a supposed cost of 2,075 premature deaths and such, does not show that the EPA is throwing away lives. It shows that the EPA regulations were ridiculous in the first place.
EasyOpinions.blogspot.com
Andrew: So far you are the only one who got my point (See your last sentences).
DeleteTo Mr. Gregory,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I thought I would make your point explicit. An amazing feature of our times is that it is hard to tell sarcasm from reality.
Well said. Just have watched a video by Ed Butowsky regarding the recent jobs report and how its reading on unemployment will surely impact the upcoming Convention and longer term the election. You can watch the video in this LINK.
ReplyDeletehmmm
ReplyDelete