Right-to-Know: Much Pain, Little Gain [for Small Businesses]
[Mandating that businesses share trade secrets with the EPA is a] formidable burden [that may] ruin many businesses.
[Requiring small businesses to report their toxic releases would] cost thousands of dollars for over 100,000 small business facilities, many of which have profits in the $10,000 range.
We estimate it will take approximately 9 man-months to meet the law’s mandates for each plant. Considering that E. F. Houghton has six plants in the United States, it would consume 4 _ man-years to meet S.51’s proposed paperwork burden.
It will require many small businesses to go through an additional costly and time consuming process of collecting and analyzing information. The benefits of doing so will not significantly improve the protection of human health or the environment.
In reviewing the proposed form mandated by S.51, it appears that much of the information required would not be useable….[and] The costs to small businesses of measuring such emissions would be staggering.
To expect well over half a million small businesses to adhere to these extensive requirements would be regulatory overkill.
