EPA regulations

This week began with all sorts of madness. College hoops' March Madness began on Thursday, and if I had a bracket it would no doubt already be busted. Weather madness broke out on Friday, the first day of spring, with a snowstorm on the East Coast. More serious meteorological madness descended as Senator Mitch McConnell launched a national effort to thwart new EPA regulations on coal-fired carbon emissions. This comes as new data showed that the rate of melting on Antarctica's East Ice could lead to a world sea-level rise of at least 11 feet and that -- spring snowstorms aside -- 2014 was the warmest year on record. On Friday, HuffPost's Sam Stein interviewed President Obama, who, when asked about managing stress, said he takes "the long view." It's a perspective we'll need -- combined with short-term political urgency -- if we're going to tackle climate change. To do otherwise is true madness.
Refiners are still in the mode of resisting new government regulatory initiatives and are not acknowledging that reducing pollution is not only good for the environment, but also has an economic return.
Bad policy locks in old technology through "grandfather clauses," specifies particular technology approaches, or tries to build customized regulations for every company and situation. This approach creates enormous costs.