House GOP improves hearing performance; Still too much wiggle room for EPA's McCarthy

Below are some notable moments from today’s House hearing on EPA regulatory overreach, featuring EPA air chief Gina McCarthy:

• McCarthy testified that she was not aware of any EPA regulation where the costs exceeded the benefits as actually implemented. (Comment: I’m not aware of any EPA regulation in the past 20 years where the benefits have been commensurate with or have exceeded the costs as actually implemented.)
• McCarthy did not know whether the cost of lost health benefits (i.e., from lost jobs) is included in cost-benefit analysis.
• Committee Chairman Ed Whitfield observed that the EPA’s benefits estimates with respect to asthma sound “pretty subjective to me.”
• Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) asked McCarthy to produce actual evidence (versus statistical estimates) of birth defects caused by ambient mercury.
• McCarthy repeatedly dodged questions about EPA science by asserting essentially that if a study is in print, it must be true.
• Henry Waxman (D-calif.) asked McCarthy whether EPA regs would stand up in court if they weren’t science based. McCarthy said, “No.” (Comment: I can’t think of the last time the EPA was forced to defend its science in court. Moreover, current legal standards do not require that EPA science is correct, only that the EPA did not act “arbitrarily and capriciously” — an extremely weak standard.)
• McCarthy told Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) that, “I don’t want to create the impression that EPA is in the business of creating jobs.” (Comment: No one has that impression, Gina.)
• Rep. David McKinley (R-West Virginia) nailed McCarthy with a practical business decisionmaking question.
• Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) attempted to confuse matters by asking McCarthy which was more dangerous, mercury from cement plants or mercury in CFL light bulbs. Rep. Brian Bilbray debunked Markey’s misdirection by pointing out the difference between outdoor and indoor air emissions. (Comment: EPA has a lengthy process for avoiding mercury emissions from broken CFL bulbs, but nothing similar for mercury in ambient air.)
• Bilbray attacked his Republican colleagues by calling them “deniers” on the health effects of air quality.