Trump undoes regulatory over-reach
President Trump is slowly but surely dismantling the "mare's nest" of regulations imposed by the Obama administration, says Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.
"For too many years these regulations have frustrated the lives of just about everyone, from ordinary citizens to job-creating small businesses and other job providers. So far, Mr. Trump has rolled back seven Obama-era rules, including a land use regulation that had a particularly egregious impact on one Idaho couple. Noted commentator and syndicated columnist John Stossel wrote about it in a recent article."
It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Jack Barron tried to build a house on their own property. They got permission from their county and started building. They got as far as the foundation when the EPA suddenly declared that the property was a wetland and brought criminal charges against the couple. The Barrons fought back at great expense and three years later they were ultimately exonerated. But that wasn't good enough for the EPA.
As Mrs. Barron told Stossel, "We won, but after we were home for a month maybe, the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA sent us another letter saying, 'how nice for you that you won in the criminal court, but we still feel it's a wetlands'." The agency threatened to fine the family $37,500 a day if they were to persist in building their new home. The Barrons were forced to give up and they moved into a trailer.
"And then there was the regulation that limited the amount of CO2 that a power plant could emit. CO2 is what our own bodies emit when we breathe. According to Stossel that regulation would have reduced CO2 emissions by a whopping one percent by 2030, if everything went the right way for the EPA. Meanwhile, it would cause great hardship among all families, mostly having a negative impact on the lives of senior citizens. The rule would surely have increased the cost of electricity putting many fixed-income elderly Americans in the position of having to choose between food and other necessities and the power to heat and cool their homes," says Weber.
Weber points out that the total annual cost of federal regulations is in the very expensive neighborhood of two trillion dollars- "that's trillion with a 'T' and 12 zeroes. In fact, according to the National Association of Manufacturers and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University show that regulation has a powerful financial impact on the average American family. Estimates of the cost to families at upwards of $15,000 a year."
The AMAC chief notes that when Mr. Trump killed that regulation it also gave many coal miners their jobs back. President Obama's Clean Power Plan would severely restricted the use of coal in the production of electricity. The regulation would not only cause hardship for users, but it would cruelly reduce the ability of coal miners to earn a living.
"There will no doubt be litigation to stymie Mr. Trump's reduction of regulation but as far as the CO2 emission rule is concerned the Supreme Court has already said it might, indeed, be unfair. Thus, the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch as the newest high court Justice is causing disquiet among environmentalists who believe that a case against the president's reversal of the CO2 regulation would be hard to win if it gets to the Supreme Court," notes Weber.
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