Two EPA examples:
During the Clinton administration, the EPA changed the amount of allowable arsenic in drinking water 50 ppb to 10 ppb. At 50 ppb there is no discernable health risk to the public. 1000 times that at 50 ppm is a huge health risk as it is in Bangladesh.
The
ONLY reason the EPA changed the limit was because at the time new test equipment had been put on the market that could accurately measure down to the new, and absolutely miniscule, limit of 10 ppb.
For most of the Western US, who get their water from ground water and wells, this new limit saw water companies, double, triple, and even quadruple people's water bills overnight to pay for the new--and very expensive--test equipment along with new and very expensive filtration systems to remove arsenic that was often just a few ppb above the limit. Here in the Phoenix area, most ground water had 12 ppb arsenic in it.
So, costing consumers billions, water companies millions, the EPA lowered a standard that did
NOTHING to improve public health or the environment. You tell me why.
The next is one that the EPA has tried repeatedly to put in place but hasn't managed to do. Allowable ozone pollution is currently set at 75 ppb. The EPA wanted to lower that to 70 ppb, a drop of just five (5) parts per billion. The annual cost of this was estimated at $100 billion nationally. The EPA claimed this insignificant drop in ozone would result in--magically-- a reduction in asthma deaths and medical treatments equaling--ready for this?--$100 billion a year!
Congress critters called the EPA in to justify their claims. You know what the EPA did? They stonewalled Congress and refused to show them the data they used to get that number. The plan was dropped for the time being as the EPA realized they couldn't bluff their way into getting this new regulation in place. But they are still trying...
You see this?
That's on every five gallon bucket in America now.
Every year 8 to 15 small children drown falling head first into a five gallon bucket. The CPSC wanted to stop that. So, they wrote a rule that crossed sticks would be mandated on the mouth of buckets to prevent this. Users in the review said that would make the buckets difficult or impossible to use the way they did, on construction sites for example, and that they'd just smash out the sticks and use the bucket as before.
The CPSC responded they'd make that illegal.
The bucket manufacturers said it would cost them billions a year and contribute about 1% to inflation for them to make buckets with the CPSC design. There was so much pushback that the CPSC compromised and had manufacturers add that warning label to all five gallon buckets. Today 8 to 15 small children drown in five gallon buckets...