Federal Spotlight: Federal court rules EPA must consider job losses

October 20, 2016

A judge for the Northern District of West Virginia U.S. District Court recently ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unlawfully ignored its duty under Section 321 of the Clean Air Act to evaluate potential and actual job loss from its regulations. The agency has rolled out tens of billions of dollars worth of new air regulations on electric utilities, energy producers, manufacturers, vehicles and other sources, and had not done any mandatory job loss evaluations before finalizing any of those regulations.

The court gave EPA two weeks to do a job loss analysis for the coal industry, which has faced a regulatory burden heavier than perhaps any other sector over the past decade. Despite the fact that the regulations at issue are final and are already being implemented, it is a positive for manufacturers that EPA will have to properly evaluate the impact of its regulations on jobs. For more information, check out the National Association of Manufacturers’ blog.