ECONOMY BENEFITS FROM THE CLIMATE FIGHT – EPA

Dear Congressman Barton and Congressman Burgess:
Lisa Jackson, November 8, 2010 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

"Thank you for your October 14 letter about EPA's work to follow Congress's instructions in the Clean Air Act…EPA has finalized or proposed fewer Clean Air Act rules (87) over the past 21 months than in the first two years of either President George W. Bush's administration (146) or President Clinton's administration (115)…

"The chart attached to your letter does not present the projected economic benefits of any of the listed rulemakings…Had the chart included the benefits projections, readers of it would have be able to see that the projected benefits of EPA's pollution reduction rules under the Clean Air Act exceed the projected costs by 13 to 1… [and] are expected to reach nearly $2 trillion in 2020 - exceeding costs by more than 30 to 1."

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"EPA's work to implement the Clean Air Act has a positive impact on employment in the United States . First of all, when we remove harmful smog and soot from the air, fewer Americans are forced to miss work due to pollution-related illnesses…What is more, requirements to cut harmful air pollution at American facilities spur investments in the design, manufacture, installation, and operation of pollution-reducing technologies…[I]nstalling or operating pollution controls on American facilities cannot be sent abroad. Many of the…job-creating, pollution-reducing upgrades are concentrated in the very places that currently have the most unemployed workers.

"…[T]he number of boilermakers in the United States increased by 6,700 - or 35 percent - from 1999 to 2001 as a result of EPA rulemakings implementing the Clean Air Act…[P]reparations to comply with just one of those rules have occupied approximately 200,000 person-years of labor over the past seven years…[I]n 2007, environmental firms and small businesses in the United States generated $282 billion in revenues and $40 billion in exports, while supporting 1 .6 million American jobs. Air pollution control equipment alone generated revenues of $18 .3 billion in 2007, including exports of more than $3 billion…American manufacturing companies now lead
a growing global market in air pollution reduction technology…"

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"In sum: EPA's common-sense steps to implement the Clean Air Act result in much greater economic value than cost for Americans. The companies whose products and services bring American industry into line with the Clean Air Act's public health requirements support hundreds of thousands of American jobs…[and] foster global markets for American-made technologies .

"EPA…has identified three planned Clean Air Act rules that were not on your list but are likely "economically significant" (i.e., rules with projected benefits and/or costs greater than $100 million) . One proposed rule would set air pollution limits for commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators…The second…would set "Tier 3" emissions and fuel standards for motor vehicles . The third proposed rule would (in conjunction with a rule issued by the Department of Transportation) establish fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for light-duty vehicles of Model Years 2017 through 2025…"