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| Warning: These are rocks, do not eat |
About a year ago I attended a fundraiser for Illinois Republican congressional candidate Joel Pollak where Rick Woldenberg, the CEO of Learning Resources, spoke about the extra expense his company had to digest because it had to redesign his company's educational rock and fossil sample packages--so it would include warnings about not eating rocks--per a new federal regulation. When so-called blockhead Charlie Brown received rocks while trick-or-treating in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," he didn't try to eat them, did he?
From yesterday's Wall Street Journal--paid subscription required:
The Obama administration will release final plans Tuesday for ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations, an effort to reduce the burden on business and counter criticism that the White House is tone-deaf to business concerns.That's the band-aid. But business is still being "cut in half with a gun," as the Journal tells us:
Certain railroad cars won't have to install expensive technology, hospitals will be able to skip a round of federal paperwork and low-risk travelers to the U.S. will enjoy expedited entry, officials said. Some businesses will be allowed to file federal forms electronically.
But the changes don't affect the broad thrust of major administration initiatives that have drawn criticism from businesses, such as proposed rules to reduce carbon emissions and laws passed last year that aim to protect consumers from financial and health-insurance abuses.But the Obama administration isn't disarming. Back to the Journal:
The White House said it sought to eliminate "dumb" rules without undermining the underlying goals. "We are going to implement statutes that have been enacted in the last few years, but we're trying to do it in a way that is as careful with respect to cost and as attuned with the economic situation as possible," said Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, who oversaw the regulatory review.It's all just a PR move to assuage business as Obama faces a tough reelection campaign, as the Journal concludes:
Mr. Sunstein said the administration is also applying a stricter standard for new regulations. He pointed to a rule governing noise in the workplace that the Labor Department is revising after concerns were raised about its costs exceeding the benefits, and a similar move by the Environmental Protection Agency to set a national construction site standard for sediment emissions.About the EPA:
From the Washington Examiner:
On July 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule -- another in an endless line of new federal environmental regulations with the stated purpose of improving air quality.The Daily Caller:
Like the others, this new rule will have little impact on the environment. Rather, its chief effect will be to kill jobs, put the brakes on economic growth, increase energy costs and impair our energy security. And in keeping with an emerging pattern of EPA behavior, the new rule was adopted in flagrant violation of due-process rights.
This rule will impose onerous new costs on coal-fired power plants, causing many to shut down, and threaten electrical generation reserve capacity all over the country. These reserve margins are needed to avoid power disruption during times of peak demand. Even temporary loss of reserve capacity risks dangerous blackouts.
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| Coal barge, Guttenberg, Iowa |
In a lengthy letter to EPA Director Lisa Jackson, Obama's Small Business Administration advocacy office wrote the EPA "may have significantly understated" the economic "burden this rulemaking would impose on small entities."I've written numerous times about the overreach of the National Labor Relations Board in regards to its blocking Boeing from building its Boeing 787 in South Carolina and its wish to install "quickie" union organizing elections on unsuspecting businesses. And another Obama radicalized agency, National Mediation Board changed a seven decade rule that counts a non-vote as a no-vote.
One Southern Indiana Chamber of Commerce vice president, Tonya Fischer, told The Daily Caller the entire state of Indiana would be "devastated" by these regulations. “We are definitely in opposition to [the MACT regulations] because it would be devastating for the state of Indiana." She adds that local businesses, which are struggling with the tough economy already, would be forced to pick up the extra energy production costs Obama’s EPA is pushing. "We get 95 percent of our electricity from coal."
"The cost to convert those facilities would be passed on to the small business owners, or basically shut them [the coal energy producing facilities] down altogether," Fischer said. "It would become cost-prohibitive for them [local businesses] to continue paying their electricity bills."
In the education field, the Obama Education Department is attacking for-profit schools with its gainful-employment rule that does not apply to not-for-profits.
No "band-aids" are being offered in these instances, except in the NMB case.
All of this overreaching just makes me feel like eating rocks.
Related posts:
Report from the bloggers' conference call on Dept of Ed's gainful employment rule for career colleges
Issa issues a subpoena on NLRB overreach in Boeing case
WFI responds to White House on "scaled back regulations"
Report from Joel Pollak's Chicagoland Business Forum
Nat'l Mediation Board overreach needs to be checked too
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