"The American people deserve to know how much President Obama's EPA is going cost them, but this latest delay, along with his punting of other rules, clearly shows that he doesn't want them to find out before the election."
Background
Under the proposed 316(b) rule, EPA is planning to regulate man-made cooling reservoirs that are adjacent to power plants as if they were natural lakes needing protections for fish populations. This plan is extremely costly - EPA estimates that the Draft rule would cost between $384 million and $460 million per year and have benefits of just $17 million, a cost benefit gap of more than 22 to 1. It is also unnecessary: these water intake structures have been in place on cooling reservoirs for many years and, in conjunction with review by the state environmental agency, they pose no threat to fishery populations. Most notably, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has said that fish populations in the state's utility cooling ponds are healthy.
Senator Inhofe remains concerned that EPA's planned implementation of section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act will have negative repercussions on Oklahoma's electric utilities, affecting fifteen power plants in the state. Last August he
sent a letter to the Water Docket, detailing some of the potential impacts of the proposed rule in Oklahoma.
In order to address the economic impacts of 316(b) as well as many of EPA's other regulations, Senator Inhofe along with Senator Johanns introduced the
Comprehensive Assessment of Regulations on the Economy Act (CARE) which requires EPA, in conjunction with other relevant federal departments and agencies, to determine the total cost of several major rules EPA is preparing to issue. The rules EPA would be required to study would include cooling water intake structures under 316 (b) of the Clean Water Act, Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards for power plants, National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter and ozone, New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gases covering utilities and refineries, Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) preconstruction review permits for greenhouse gases, Regional Haze, and Coal Combustion Waste under the Solid Waste Disposal Act.