A top Baton Rouge Area Chamber official visited the nation’s capital today to testify in opposition to stricter air quality standards for ozone emissions being proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. BRAC Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Erin Monroe Wesley spoke before the Subcommittees on Energy and Power and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade at a joint hearing entitled “EPA’s Proposed Ozone Rule: Potential Impacts on Manufacturing.”
The EPA proposal, which is backed by President Barack Obama’s administration, would lower the current 75 parts-per-billion limit of measured ozone pollution to between 65 and 70. The Baton Rouge area had struggled for years to meet the current federal ozone standard and only obtained 75 parts per billion measure by the end of 2013, which also put the entire state in compliance.
In March, BRAC released an analysis of Brookings Institution data showing Baton Rouge is among 18 of the nation’s top 20 performing metro areas whose economies are being negatively impacted merely by the proposal of stricter air quality standards for ozone emissions.
“Since the EPA first proposed lowering the ozone standard in December, the Baton Rouge area has seen four major industrial projects totaling 2,000 direct and indirect jobs, and more than $7 billion in capital investment, either put on hold or redirected elsewhere,” BRAC says in the analysis. “These losses are in direct correlation with the uncertainty created by the newly proposed ozone standards rule.”
The direct impact of the canceled or idled projects on the nine-parish Capital Region would have exceeded $86 million in annual wages, BRAC says.
Ross Eisenberg, vice president of energy and resources policy for the National Association of Manufacturers, also testified today.
“This proposal is likely to be the most expensive regulation ever, costing as much as $140 billion per year and placing the equivalent of 1.4 million jobs in jeopardy annually,” Eisenberg said. “Manufacturers operating in newly designated nonattainment areas could be effectively closed off to any new growth, and even manufacturers in areas that comply with the new standards will struggle to model attainment and obtain their new permits. No sector will be spared, and the nation’s manufacturing comeback—driven largely by an advantage on energy—could be placed in jeopardy.”
According to NAM estimates, Louisiana could see $3 billion in gross state product loss between 2017 and 2040 if the new rules are enacted. That equates to about 33,829 lost jobs per year, $43 billion in total compliance costs and a $710 drop in average household consumption annually, NAM says. BRAC has more details.
