James Strickler
No matter how nice the home you live in, there are bound to be improvements you could make. Maybe you’d like to replace the windows or the roof, remodel the kitchen or the baths, or add on a sunroom. Or maybe you’d like to do some landscaping, put in a patio and some outside lights.
Maybe you’ve already made improvements and increased the beauty and value of your home. Or maybe, like so many New Mexicans right now, you’ve had to postpone those plans for lack of funds or financing.
Business owners perform a similar calculus when they consider whether or not to expand or modernize their operations. In good times, they have the flexibility to take on new financial burdens that would be unsustainable in a bad economy.
When times are tough and money’s tight, you have to be practical. You can’t be extravagant, and you may even have to cut back.
This is a lesson that every citizen and business owner understands, but it’s one that’s often lost on our political leaders.
Lower standard will take a heavy toll
Like the rest of the nation, New Mexico is currently suffering from a severe economic malaise. To make matters worse, we now face the prospect of an increased regulatory burden that would be difficult to support even in the best of times.
Seemingly oblivious to our dire economic straits, the EPA now proposes, under the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), to lower the federal standard for county ground-level ozone
from the 2008 mandate of 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 60-70 ppb. This more stringent standard will put San Juan and many other New Mexico counties in a position of perpetual non-attainment, with predictable adverse consequences for businesses growth and job creation.
Six New Mexico counties are already unable to comply with the current standard, and all of our counties will be hard-pressed to meet the new one. Compliance efforts will take a heavy toll on our struggling economy, diverting resources needed to sustain us through this recession and generate a recovery. Federal penalties for noncompliance will exacerbate the problems, deterring road construction and other public work projects and delaying the start-up and expansion plans of New Mexico businesses.
What’s the rush to implement this new ozone standard? Is there some compelling reason not to postpone the ruling until our economy recovers and the cost of compliance is more bearable? Surely, the burden is on the EPA to prove that the existing ozone standard must be lowered, and that it must be lowered now rather than later.
Do we have $8 billion to squander?
When I examine the relevant EPA documents, I find no justification for lowering the standard at this time.
What I do find are EPA estimates that the national cost of this new standard could reach $90 billion. The cost for New Mexico could be as high as $8 billion, even as many counties fall short of the standard. Do we have $8 billion to squander on a hopeless effort to meet a standard we cannot meet at this time? With New Mexico businesses struggling to stay afloat and people losing their jobs, can no one think of a better way to invest $8 billion?
San Juan County is my home. New Mexico is my home. Like the citizens I represent, I want my home to be as attractive as it can be. But home improvements have to be prioritized, especially now when resources are limited. Spending a massive amount of money to meet an arbitrary standard for ozone levels is not high on my list of priorities.
There will be plenty of time to consider the merits of stricter ozone standards when we have our house in order again.
Strickler is a Republican state representative from Farmington.