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Tallahassee Democrat: Floridians would be wise to monitor EPA demands

Monday, August 01, 2011

Letter to the Editor

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will wait to issue tighter ozone air quality standards in order to give the president time to review the proposed changes. Good. It is about time that we put the EPA’s continued overreach in check and inject some common sense into the policies coming out of this agency.

I was also relieved to see that the EPA will finally take into consideration the impact these new regulations will have on American jobs, the economy and the cost of implementation. If these regulations move forward as proposed, businesses and local governments across the nation will struggle to foot the $90 billion bill for compliance. Beginning in 2020, Florida businesses will have to shell out $2 billion annually to comply with the stricter standards, and nearly 50,000 jobs for Floridians will be lost.

The fact is we already have stringent ozone regulations that were put into place three years ago. If we are going to make changes, let’s be sure those changes are necessary, based on solid science, and don’t have far-reaching consequences that inhibit our economic recovery. Despite the reprieve, the EPA has stated it expects to release new standards shortly. Floridians should take notice of this issue and urge our leaders to let reason and logic prevail when making decisions on air quality standards.

NICOLAS J. GUTIERREZ JR.
Chairman, FLA Energy Forum
flaenergyforum@gmail.com

 

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