.jpg)
By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
FREDERICKSBURG — Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling on Thursday blasted pending regulations by the Obama administration that are “out of control and crushing our businesses.”
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling says the Obama administration sees business as an “adversary.”
The state’s chief job-creation official, speaking on a conference call hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business, cited estimates that 4,218 proposed federal regulations will cost the U.S. economy $515 billion.
Among the costliest:
- $90 billion annually for new ozone-reducing air-pollution rules.
- $13 billion for “Tier 3 Motor Vehicle Emission and Fuel Standards.”
- $10 billion to $20 billion for boiler regulations that NFIB says are “virtually unattainable” by new and existing boilers.
- $2.5 billion for lead renovation repair and painting rules for commercial buildings.
Bolling, along with state NFIB members rolling out a “Stop the Tidal Wave” campaign, complained that “What the Obama administration can’t accomplish legislatively, they are imposing by administrative fiat.”
NFIB, which has 6,000 member companies statewide, estimates that $62 billion of Virginia’s gross state product would be “negatively impacted” if all the regulations were implemented.
NFIB state director Nicole Riley did not have an immediate breakdown of those costs.
But Jim Wilson, CEO of PermaTreat Pest and Termite Control in Fredericksburg, accused the Obama administration of “harassing business.”
“The (Environmental Protection Agency) has no rule-making process — just administrative action,” he said. “It’s pretty much a one-way street.”
Wilson said his company, which was established in 1967 and employs 120 workers, serves roughly half the state, as well as the U.S. Capitol and the state Capitol complex.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank, echoed Wilson’s concerns in a report that said many of the priciest regulations came from the EPA, which issued five new rules costing businesses and consumers an estimated $4 billion in the last year.
For its part, the EPA defended its mission “to protect human health and the environment.”
The agency issued a news release Thursday touting the sentencing of an Illinois man to 10 years in prison for “the illegal removal, handling and disposal of asbestos” from a building in Kankakee.
The $515 billion in pending federal regulations would far outpace the current rate, which Heritage estimates at $46 billion in additional costs per year on business.
Noting that Virginia has lost 49,600 manufacturing jobs since 2007, Bolling mocked the president’s claims of being friendly to U.S. workers.
“This administration views business as an adversary,” he said.
