Job-Killing Regulations

GOP eyes rules that firms say hurt jobs

This is an inside headline from Monday’s Washington Post, and this is the lead:  “Responding to solicitations from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), businesses have asked Congress to roll back or preempt more than 150 rules governing their industries, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.”  You can read the article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/07/AR2011020700022.html?sid=ST2011020700059

I thought I would just outline briefly what some of the effects would be if the businessmen got what they were asking for.

1.  Limits would be removed (or reduced) on emissions from industrial boilers, pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and chemical discharges from Appalachian mountaintop coal mining.

2.  The EPA would not be allowed to regulate coal ash, the waste created by coal-burning power plants. 

3.  Utilities, manufacturers and refiners would NOT be required to use the most efficient technology with industrial boilers and solid waste incinerators

4.  New fuel efficiency standards intended to curb greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles would be cancelled.

5.  New regulations involving ethanol, fuel economy labeling and rearward visibility should get “careful scrutiny."  Read “cancel.”

6.  Revisit the sweeping 2010 Wall Street regulatory overhaul and lighten up on the beleaguered bankers

7.  Cancel the requirement that corporations disclose how the chief executive's pay compares to that of the typical employee. (No it’s not embarrassing. These people are beyond embarrassment).

8.  Cancel the Administration plan to combat pilot fatigue by mandating more rest time between shifts.

The foxes will surely enjoy eating their fill if they are put in charge of the henhouse, but the surviving hens are going to be skinnier and skinnier, and those meals are going to be less and less satisfying over time and they will have to dine more and more often in foreign henhouses.

And “Down with the job-killing tax on pedicures,” says a Toles CEO.