On February 24, while Sen. Jeff Flake criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for its decision to limit the public’s access to a workshop regarding the Agency’s Ozone rules, held in Phoenix, Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem showed up to speak for them.
Finchem left the House floor during a break in voting on bills to read a statement of admonishment into the record during an open comments segment of the meeting. When he arrived, he found a room filled with about 60 members of the public and a row of empty seats with name placards on the table in front of them.
“I thought the appearance of the scene was a great commentary on the way the EPA does business. It did not instill confidence, and confirmed my belief that the EPA officials, who I was left to assume were listening remotely, couldn’t care less what the people of Arizona think or need. I can’t believe that the panel could not be bothered to show up in person for a hearing that will cost Arizonans billions of dollars to comply with. But again, that attitude is what perpetuates the notion that the EPA doesn’t really give a damn about anything but its own perverse agenda,” said Finchem.
Finchem had only learned about the event from a constituent who was concerned about the “junk science that the EPA uses to justify its arbitrary, capricious and reckless actions.”
Finchem hoped to make the bureaucrats understand that their “myopic focus” will cost the State of Arizona and its political subdivisions billions of taxpayer dollars. He believes that the Agency’s failure to “take into account the actions of other sovereigns including California and Mexico -who both contribute ozone to our airshed- is irresponsible at best.” He said that legitimate science and a clear definition of a legitimate threat to safety and welfare isn’t too much to ask.”
On February 25, in response to a report from the Center for Regulatory Solutions (CRS), Congressman Paul Gosar slammed the EPA for moving “the goal posts by unilaterally publishing a fundamentally-flawed new regulation that dramatically lowered the ozone standard for communities throughout the nation. This blatant overreach, not based on the best available science, will kill tens of thousands of jobs annually and cause more harm to our economy than any regulation in the history of this great country.”
The Council’s report details the economic impact of the EPA’s new lower federal ozone standard. The report reads in part: “By lowering the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 70 ppb, the EPA could plunge as many as nine Arizona counties into violation, or non-attainment, of federal law. According to the CRS economic analysis, these counties represent: 97% the state’s economy, 95% of the state’s jobs, 93% of the state’s population.
According to Gosar, the EPA has reported that 358 counties throughout the country will be immediately noncompliant, and an additional 1,500 counties likely will not meet this new mandate. He noted that on June 12, a witness from the EPA even contradicted the need for this new mandate when she testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and stated, “Nationally, since 1980, average ozone levels have fallen by a third.”
Gosar called the EPA’s lack of a clear plan “laughable.” The congressman also echoed Finchem’s concerns said in a statement released late last week that the “EPA is literally attempting to punish Arizona for ozone pollution that is created in California, Mexico and even China.”