Obama’s EPA Is Using Economic Data That Is More Than Twenty Years Old

August 12, 2014

We already know that the EPA ignores the economic impact of their policies. Now, new evidence sheds light on why there is a clear disconnect between the EPA’s regulatory measures and economic growth.

The GAO recently reported that the agency has been using economic data that is over 20 years old when analyzing the impact of their new regulations. Much of this data dates back as far as 1979!

How can the EPA claim they aren’t killing jobs when they use data this is more than two decades old?

From the Daily Caller :

How old is too old for employment data? Well, the Environmental Protection Agency has been using decades old economic data to analyze regulations, according to a government watchdog report.

The Government Accountability Office reported the EPA “estimated effects of its regulations on employment, in part, using a study that… was based on data that were more than 20 years old and may not have represented the regulated entities addressed” in its regulatory impact analyses (RIAs).

EPA officials told the GAO that the 20-year-old data “represented the best reasonably obtainable data” when they were analyzing regulations, and that “they are exploring new approaches for analyzing these effects but were uncertain about when such results would be available…”

Shockingly, EPA officials admitted they last used the decades-old data in June 2013 to analyze job impacts from its regulations, and that the study “continues to provide a theoretical framework for EPA’s consideration of employment effects” in regulatory analyses.