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Excessive Regulation Can Be Fatal—Why EPA’s Raft of New Regulations Should Be Delayed or Dumped

by E. Calvin Beisner

October 5, 2011

In just about the last month, the Obama Administration has delayed new EPA regulations on ozone and greenhouse gas emissions, and the House of Representatives voted to delay more EPA regulations. Americans should cheer all three developments.

Why?

Because the decisions will save lives.

First an illustration—then the facts.

About a decade ago my medical exam revealed moderately elevated cholesterol and blood pressure. My doctor, not surprisingly, immediately and sternly advised medications for both. But I knew the medications had negative side effects, and I knew the risks from my moderately high cholesterol and blood pressure were fairly small. How to balance the side effects and the risks, I didn’t know.

So I emailed my numbers to three physician friends and asked, “If these were your numbers, what would you do?” All three gave the same answer, but one illustrated it creatively.

“I could reduce the risk of incursions of Virginia white-tailed deer into my city yard, where they could eat up my rare plants, by better than 38% by erecting a nine-foot high fence around the yard,” he said. “I have not done so and do not plan to do so, since the absolute risk of a deer entering my downtown property is very small. A 38% reduction of a very small risk, is a very small absolute reduction.”

All three said they’d take no medications if they had my numbers, though they might increase their exercise and make some minor changes in diet. I took no medications, increased my exercise a bit, and made no changes in diet. A decade later, my numbers are lower. We all want to keep risks to a minimum, but sometimes reducing one risk involves increasing another.

Since, as this graph from Flip Spagnoli’s Human Rights Blog shows, income is a good predictor of life expectancy, one way to compare the costs and benefits of medical treatment—or government regulation—is to estimate its money cost and compare it with how much added life expectancy correlates with that amount of income. For example, a study published in 1999 in the journal Economic Inquiry estimated that every $15 million in regulatory compliance costs leads to one excess statistical death in the U.S. population.
Or since, as this graph from the World Bank shows, economic freedom is a good indicator of income, another way to compare the costs and benefits of a government regulation is to estimate how much it reduces economic freedom, then find out how much reduction in income correlates with that—and, in turn, how much reduction in life expectancy.

Such considerations explain why many people, like me, are concerned about the raft of new regulations being proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All of them will impose compliance costs in both reduced freedom and reduced income per capita. And those, in turn, spell reduced health and life expectancy for the American people.

For example, one proposed new rule would force reductions of mercury emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants by about 83 percent—from about 29 to about 5 tons per year. Credible estimates of the cost to achieve that range from the EPA’s low of about $10 billion to a high of $100 billion—or, at one death per $15 million in regulatory costs, a low of about 675 to a high of about 6,667 excess deaths—to achieve the EPA’s stated goal. Yet the EPA itself says that even larger reductions would be “unlikely to substantially affect total risk.”

But that’s just one rule. There are others, forcing reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, coal ash, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, ozone, and airborne particulates—and those are just the ones targeting the electric utility industry. Their costs will add up to hundreds of billions of dollars annually, with each $100 billion causing an added 6,667 deaths (more than twice those killed on 9/11).

EPA has other parts of our economy in its crosshairs, too. For example, a new “guidance document” instructing EPA employees how to interpret the Clean Water Act (in ways contrary to two Supreme Court rulings and Congressional intent, but flying under the radar by avoiding EPA’s formal rule-making process) will force farmers to get CWA permits before using pesticides, though pesticide use is already governed by FIFRA (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act). As Missouri farmer Blake Hurst points out, EPA estimates the new rule will require filing 5.6 million permits each year, at an administrative cost to the EPA of about $50 million (3.3 deaths)—and that doesn’t include the roughly 1 million hours of farmers’ time each year required to file the permits. (Calculated at $25 per hour, that’s another 1.7 deaths. A death here, a death there—pretty soon we’re talking about real people.)

That’s not the only way new EPA regs will hit farmers. Tighter particulate matter rules would require farmers to reduce the amount of dust they stir up. “Dust is sort of natural to farming,” Hurst says, “up to and including the dust from the gravel and dirt roads that are the only ways to access most farms, including my own. When we harvest, we leave great plumes of soybean dust in our wake, making harvest-time the season for the Midwest’s most beautiful sunsets. The EPA has recommended that we harvest our crops before they are, well, dry as dust. This means we’ll have to spend more time and money on drying grain, causing us to use more energy, which will increase greenhouse gases, which the EPA is working on as well. Not only that, but grain harvested at high moisture is much more likely to grow mold”—which causes its own health risks.

As in energy generation, so in agriculture: more regulations mean higher costs. Those costs will always be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices—not just for food and energy but for everything else, since workers require food and machines require energy. And the people hardest hit will be the poor, the elderly, and others with low or fixed incomes. All the rest of these new regulations should be delayed or killed, too. The result would be savings, not just of money but, more importantly, life and liberty.

Photo Credit: Mateusz Stachowski/freeimages.com

Dated: October 5, 2011

Tagged With: Climate Change, EPA, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas, Regulation, Sixth Commandment
Filed Under: Climate & Energy, EPA & Other Federal Agencies, Global Warming Science, Politics & Law, Regulation

About E. Calvin Beisner

Dr. Beisner is Founder and National Spokesman of The Cornwall Alliance; former Associate Professor of Historical Theology & Social Ethics, at Knox Theological Seminary, and of Interdisciplinary Studies, at Covenant College; and author of “Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate” and “Prospects for Growth: A Biblical View of Population, Resources, and the Future.”

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Future Speaking Engagements

May 23, 2025 – Grand Rapids, MI

GR.Church, 4525 Stauffer Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49508

Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, Cornwall Alliance President, and Steve Goreham, Cornwall Alliance Board Member, will hold a symposium on Sustainable Energy, Climate Change, and the costs to YOUR life.  For tickets and more information, click HERE.

June 18-21, 2025–Dallas, TX

Cornwall Alliance will be a host of the Association of Classical Christian Schools’ (ACCS) annual Repairing the Ruins conference in Dallas, TX, and will have an exhibit booth.

Details and registration can be found HERE.

September 19-20–Arlington, VA

Dr Beisner will represent the Cornwall Alliance at the fall meeting of the Philadelphia Society and will have a literature table.

Attendance is for Society members and invited guests only. To inquire about an invitation, email Dr. Cal Beisner: Calvin@cornwallalliance.org.

September 26-27– Lynchburg, VA

Dr. Beisner will be speaking at the Christian Education Initiative Annual Summit, “Advancing Christ’s Kingdom Through Biblical Worldview Education.” 

Details and registration can be found HERE.

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