When Regulation Ends an American Industry

Reuters reported in 2012 that the United States’ last remaining primary lead smelter will close its doors at the end of 2013. The smelter is located in Missouri, and the company cited as the cause of the plant closure Environmental Protection Agency regulations that would impose financially “unacceptable” risks. When the smelter’s doors slam shut a couple weeks from now, many hard-working Americans will lose their well-paying jobs and an important domestic contribution to our nation’s economy will be gone. Lead smelting, as with other industrial processes, will continue to flourish in nations that do not have our regulatory burden, just as these industries diminish and disappear in the United States. This closure in Missouri is a loss for the American economy, a net loss for the environment and a very real and brutal loss for those who will not have jobs in January.

According to a small-business advocacy group, in 2010, “the total cost of federal regulations ha[d] increased to $1.75 trillion” per year and “small businesses continue[d] to bear a disproportionate share of the federal regulatory burden.” That information was from a study by Nicole V. Crain and W. Mark Crain titled “The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms.”