Cleaner Air, Lighter Wallets?

When it comes to the EPA, even cleaner air can be bad news.  The Environmental Protection Agency has recently released this chart:
 

As we can see, variables that would normally increase pollution levels in developing countries have all seen relative increases over the last 30 years.  The population has expanded, production has increased, and more and more people are getting behind the wheel and going more places.  Despite all this, the EPA is boasting, we have also seen a pretty drastic drop in aggregate pollution; and even a recent decrease in carbon dioxide release.  Good news all around right? Well… not exactly. Here’s the graph the EPA doesn’t want you to see: The EPA’s Budget over the past 30 Years

Source: Office of Management and Budget
 
The EPA is also notoriously expensive when it comes to the rules and regulations it imposes. Some estimates have put the total cost of environmental regulations across the board at roughly $236 Billion.  In 2009 alone the EPA entered 331 rules and regulations into the Unified Agenda. This was the second most rules proposed out of all the Federal departments and agencies.  Additionally, 27 of these rules were estimated to cost $100 million or more; again the second highest amongst all other bureaucracies.

 All this was proposed in 2009, when the EPA (according to their chart) claims that carbon dioxide and other pollutant emission levels were at their lowest level in 30 years! The air was cleaner than ever in 2009 and yet the EPA grew by almost $3 billion the very next year in 2010. Why is cleaner air and increased environmental consciousness costing Americans more and more money every year?  It’s as if we hired a builder to construct us a house and somehow he’s charging us more for the finishing touches, the flowers out front and the knocker on the front door, than for all the lumber, plumbing, and electrical work!

Multi-billion dollar increases year after year like clock-work, all to fund the protection of an environment that’s never been cleaner in the industrialized age, is irresponsible.  Paying for this overgrown and nearly outdated bureaucracy is contributing to the economic turmoil the United States is currently facing by draining the Treasury and making it more difficult for Americans to do business and pay taxes through unnecessary swaths of regulations.