WASHINGTON, DC —
- “The benefits of the finalized Obama EPA rules are valued at $144 billion a year (all figures in 2010 dollars). Most of the benefits come from saving lives and other health benefits. They also include benefits such as substantially reduced fuel expenditures by consumers or increased worker productivity (because workers are healthier).
- The compliance costs of the Obama EPA rules ultimately amount to about $26 billion a year. In combination, the annual costs equal only about 0.1 percent of the economy—or one-thousandth of the economy. Compliance costs of this magnitude should not be expected to dramatically influence economic growth or employment in one direction or another.
- The net benefits from these rules total $118 billion a year. Benefits exceed costs by a ratio of 5.5 to 1.
- Using methodology I wrote up previously, I estimate that the economic benefits from the joint EPA/DOT rules alone (fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for vehicles) exceed $37 billion a year, or more than the compliance costs for all 13 of the Obama rules examined here. These economic benefits consist nearly entirely of consumers having to purchase less gasoline. From a health perspective, less gasoline consumption also means less air pollution, smog, greenhouse gas emissions, and disease.”
— Isaac Shapiro, Economic Policy Institute
