The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) expanding regulatory dominion apparently knows no bounds. The science behind the EPA’s current crusade, however, is a statistical house of cards. Although less stringent than anticipated, the new national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for ozone, set at 70 parts per billion (ppb), may be the straw that breaks the back of our struggling economy.

The newly adopted standard, which has been pending since 2011 when the White House yanked back the rule at a cost of $90 billion annually, joins at least 20 other EPA rules of unprecedented scope, stringency and cost promulgated under the Obama administration. Long considered the most burdensome of the EPA’s air quality programs, the new ozone standard will substantially add to the burgeoning costs already imposed by the EPA’s torrent of rules. The need, however, for a tougher ozone standard is highly questionable.

To continue reading For EPA’s ozone standard, no cost is too high, no risk too low, visit The Hill’s website.