EPA To States: "Pound Sand."
Robert Verchick is EPA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy, Economics, and Innovation (OPEI). Previously, he was a law professor and a board member of something called the “Center for Progressive Reform,” a far left “think-tank” favoring federal government control over pretty much every aspect of human existence.
EPA issues scores of rules every year for implementation by State environmental agencies. State regulators, who have found EPA’s implementation cost estimates almost always substantially underestimate costs, and who must obtain State budgetary appropriations to pay
for EPA mandates, therefore have asked EPA to come up with a “cost of rules formula” the State agencies may use to help develop accurate budgets. Verchick’s response:
Pound sand.
According to the invaluable Inside EPA, Verchick addressed a March 25 Environmental Council of the States conference and reportedly said: “I’m not sure, personally, that this cost of rules focus is serving your interest…” Furthermore, Verchick reportedly said it was not possible to isolate the cost of EPA’s rules in any event. One can only hope Verchick's statements were somehow taken out of context, for Federal bureaucratic arrogance is generally not a terribly adaptive strategy for implementing policy. In any event, given Verchick's well-documented antipathy to cost-estimating regulatory burdens, it is likely State environmental agencies and State taxpayers will continue to suffer from EPA’s irrational refusal to disclose its rules' true costs.
