WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today issued the following statement in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to release a new draft rule tightening limits on ground-level ozone emissions on the day before Thanksgiving:

“Yet again we’re seeing the Obama administration release an incredibly expensive regulation on the eve of a major national holiday. The administration is clearly hoping to release this at a time when the vast majority of Americans are focused elsewhere, and that alone should tell us something about it. 

“EPA’s proposed tightening of ozone standards threatens to put large swaths of the country into non-attainment and could be the costliest regulation in U.S. history, which would be devastating to the economy. This also appears to be essentially the same rule that President Obama himself yanked back in 2011, out of concerns about its costs and impacts.    

“What's worse is that this is just the latest in a long line of environmental regulations that have come off of EPA's regulatory conveyor belt in recent months. Many of these rules are being imposed with little concern or attention to their costs for families and businesses. With regard to ozone, in particular, the projected health benefits are heavily speculative at best, notwithstanding their high costs to achieve.           

“My concern all along has been the EPA’s failure to consider the impact its regulations will have on the budgets of the American people – and its ongoing failure to strike a proper balance between costs and health benefits. This ozone rule will further increase energy prices for families and industry, which is going to mean less disposable income and fewer jobs being created.”

Murkowski is the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee.

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