By REP. SCOTT TIPTON

My Colorado colleague, Republican Rep. Cory Gardner, recently asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s assistant administrator, Mathy Stanislaus, whether the agency’s economic analysis had considered the effect of proposed regulations on jobs. “Not directly,” Stanislaus answered.

Unfortunately, this is not the only example — nor is the EPA the only government agency — to have failed to adequately consider the effect of their proposals on small businesses and jobs.

We held a hearing recently in Grand Junction, Colo., to examine this issue: burdensome federal energy regulations and their detrimental effect on small businesses, jobs and consumer prices.

President Barack Obama has been doing a lot of talking about how vital small businesses are to job creation and the economy.

He’s right.

Yet more than 43 major regulations were proposed last year, and an additional 219 are in the pipeline — each estimated to cost more than $100 million.

In addition, the administration this year proposed seven new regulations that would likely each cost the U.S. economy more than $1 billion annually, if implemented. Four were put forward by the EPA.
A recent study showed that regulation burdens to the American people cost about $1.75 trillion annually — including $281 billion for environmental regulations that disproportionately hit small businesses. On average, government regulations cost small businesses nearly $10,585 per employee.