More good news for the economy: EPA slams refineries with "conflicting and contradictory" regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency, which is comprised of thousands of unelected bureaucrats whose edicts carry the force of law, hasn't stopped with terrorizing just the coal, natural gas, and oil industries. Next on its agenda: the refining business, responsible not only for gasoline but also untold thousands of chemicals, plastics and other goods that are vital to the U.S. economy.

The US Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule updating Clean Air Act standards for refinery flares and process heaters on June 1. The new standards will reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and volatile organic compound emissions while saving refiners about $80 million/year, EPA said. American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers officials immediately disagreed.

...The new rules won’t deliver what EPA promises, API and AFPM officials said in separate responses. They will be tremendously costly to refiners without providing significant environmental benefits, API Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Director Howard Feldman maintained.

“Refineries have spent billions of dollars to improve environmental performance and air quality continues to improve under existing regulations,” he said. “This is part of a tsunami of new EPA air regulations for refineries that could diminish our fuel manufacturing capacity and increase our reliance on imported fuels.”

David Friedman, AFPM’s vice-president for regulatory affairs, said EPA’s final rule was more balanced than previous proposals, but that, “EPA still falls short in issuing commonsense standards.” He said, “This final rule will not ‘dramatically save’ but rather cost the industry significant amounts each year, adding to the billions already paid in complying with the myriad fuel and stationary source regulations, some of which are conflicting and contradictory.”

The EPA has proven itself unworthy of this great nation. Its leadership, consisting of left-wing eco-Marxists, is bent on de-industrializing America, while making it more dependent on foreign sources of oil.

The EPA must be completely de-funded and rebuilt from scratch, this time with sensible controls on its power.