A revolting administration.

• Author: Fumento, Michael

Industry doesn't like the proposed new EPA regulations? What's new? Many scientists think they're unsubstantiated? So what? But the EPA's proposals are so absurd that even members of the Clinton administration are objecting.

Last November, before issuing its proposals, the EPA solicited comments from other branches of the administration. In March, via a leak, many of these comments came to light. What they showed was that the EPA had gone forward with its proposed standards even though many parts of the executive branch had expressed sometimes strong disagreement with them. To quote the Associated Press, these concerns were "only slightly less intense than the criticism from industry groups, members of Congress and state officials." Among the critics were members of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, the White House science adviser, the Commerce, Transportation, Treasury, and Agriculture departments, and the Small Business Administration. Only the Interior Department completely approved the EPA proposal.

Assistant Secretary of Transportation Frank Kruesi wrote that it was "incomprehensible that the Administration would commit to a new set of standards and new efforts to meet such standards without much greater understanding of the problem and its solutions." He also complained that the proposals would "bring a significantly larger proportion of the population and more jurisdictions under Federal oversight and procedural burdens."

The EPA claims that its proposals will have no significant impact on small businesses, but the SBA is convinced this position is absurd. "We urge the agency to rethink its position," wrote the SBA's chief counsel for advocacy, Jere Glover, who noted that it "would be a startling proposition to the small business community." The "EPA's own analysis" showed the new standards "will unquestionably fall on tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of small businesses." He wrote that at least 10 and as many as 54 different types of industries whose businesses typically have fewer than 100 employees "would face costs in excess of 10 percent of sates" due to the proposed ozone standard alone. Glover added, in bold type, "Thus, this regulation is certainly one of the most expensive regulations, if not the most expensive regulation, faced by small businesses in ten or more years."

Meanwhile, a memo from the secretary of agriculture said, "We share the concerns of the Small Business Administration regarding...