Today the White House announced it will delay their premature tightening of America’s ozone standards. Every five years, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to reassess the amount of emissions present in the ozone. Given the predisposition of the agency’s regulators, the EPA regularly places stricter, unnecessary limits on the amount of emissions legally permissible.

In an attempt to appease discontented environmentalists, the EPA was considering implementing drastically tighter ozone standards two years before they are required to do so. Acknowledged by the EPA as the most economically burdensome regulations the agency is considering, the proposed ozone standard would have exacerbated America’s economic woes and induced job losses in the millions.

Americans for Tax Reform Foundation’s Cost of Government Day Report highlights a NAM study which quantifies just how disastrous the EPA’s proposed ozone standard would be:

In a report on ozone reduction, the Manufacturers Alliance found that the EPA’s proposed allowable ozone emission standard of 60 parts per billion (ppb) would cost $1.01 trillion in 2020 and in subsequent years through 2030.  These attainment costs are particularly high because the marginal cost of ozone reduction rises quickly as more expensive technologies are required to meet more stringent standards. Using CBO federal spending baseline estimates for the next ten years, the Obama ozone regulations will increase the cost of government by 18 days.

If growth is premised upon historical averages rather than CBO estimates, the ozone regulation will increase the cost of government by 21 days in 2020. The Manufacturers Alliance report estimates job  losses of 7.28 million in 2020.

While the Obama Administration’s announcement to delay a new ozone rule for two years comes as good news, the EPA is still busy implementing a handful of other regulations which could prove to be just as burdensome: The Coal MACT, The Clean Air Transport Rule (CATR) and Utility Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT)—just to name a few.

Click here to learn more about the rules the EPA is still pushing and their effect on our struggling economy.

Posted by Chris Prandoni on Friday, September 2, 2011 4:08 PM EDT

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