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White House Report Shows BenefitsOutweigh Costs 5 to 1
It's one thing for a Sierra Club spokesperson to say that environmental protection
is worth the cost, but another entirely when an agency under the direct oversight
of the White House reaches the same conclusion. Yet this fall, the Office
of Management and Budget-a body charged with evaluating the economic impact
of legislation-released
a report asserting that environmental standards return benefits five to seven
times greater than their costs.
The study found that during the past decade the public saved at least $146 billion
through fewer hospital visits, lower medical costs, and work days that might
have been lost. Industry, meanwhile, paid between $36 and $42 billion to meet
more stringent rules.
Will the Bush administration take the advice of its own experts and stop dismantling
our environmental protections? Not likely, but now the Club has evidence from
White House bookkeepers that environmental protection makes economic sense.
Read the report at: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/regpol-reports_congress.html
-by Brian Vanneman
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