(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new rules on emissions of pollutants such as dioxin, to take effect in 1995, have the paper industry seeing red. Whereas the EPA says it would cost papermakers no more than $4 billion over three years to update plants and install new equipment, the consulting firm SRI International sets the tab at closer to $10 billion. SRI also predicts that 30 of the 460 paper mills in the U.S. would close because refitting them would be too costly, wiping out 19,000, or 8%, of jobs at the mills. The EPA proposal comes on the heels of an executive order from President Clinton mandating that by the end of 1994 the government buy paper with at least 20% recycled content. Companies argue that the cost of meeting pollution standards will leave them hard-pressed to buy the machinery they'll later need to make recycled stuff for Uncle Sam, who now consumes 300,000 tons of paper a year.