Regulation of the Day: Clean Air in Columbus, OH

The fourth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Environmental Protection Agency ($7.1 billion 2009 budget, 17,217 employees). The EPA is traditionally one of the more active rulemaking agencies, issuing 330 new rules last year alone (see table on p. 17).

One of their latest proposals concerns clean air in Columbus, Ohio. The area boasts some of the best air quality in the state.

One would think that regulators, seeing these heartening results, would pat themselves on the back for a job well done, and move on to other pursuits.

One would be wrong. Instead, “EPA is proposing to approve, as a revision to the Ohio State Implementation Plan (SIP), the State’s plan for maintaining the 8-hour ozone NAAQS through 2020 in the area.” That among other things.

See pages 27,973-27,985 of the 2009 Federal Register for details.