A new proposal to overhaul how to weigh the costs and benefits of federal environmental regulations is especially timely and valuable to the forestry industry here in Ohio. There is probably no sector of the American economy where conservation is more intertwined with long-term economic success, or which better illustrates the need for regulatory improvement.
After a multi-year review of regulatory procedures, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler on June 4 laid out specific steps to impose more discipline on cost-benefit analyses. The guidelines represent a common-sense approach to incorporate more consistency and transparency on how metrics are developed, communicated and applied when imposing EPA regulations. If we can finally get this right it will be an important step for ensuring environmental laws work as intended, instead of merely perpetuating legal battles that often delay activities and projects that would benefit the economy as a whole as well as individual workers and consumers in Ohio and across the nation.