Cost-benefit Analysis

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Bill Burdening EPA Would Derail Public Health and the Economy

Apr 7, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Today, a House energy panel will hold a hearing on the TRAIN Act. The TRAIN Act has nothing to do with locomotives. It is actually the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act of 2011.

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EPA Again Refuses to Prevent Massive Fish Kills

Mar 30, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week proposed standards for facilities that use natural waters to cool equipment, but the proposal does not require technology that would prevent millions of fish from being sucked in with the water.

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Regulation a Boon for the Economy, Reports Show

Amid a tide of Republican complaints over regulations’ impact on economic growth, two new government reports show that the economic benefits of rules outstrip compliance costs by billions of dollars every year.

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Air Standards Prove Their Worth

Mar 2, 2011 by Matthew Madia

A House panel held a hearing yesterday examining EPA rules on greenhouse gas emissions and grilling air chief Gina McCarthy, criticizing her for not doing enough to count economic costs when writing new rules (even though the Clean Air Act constrains EPA in that department).

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The Clean Air Act and the Jobs vs. Regulations Myth

In response to a congressional request, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently prepared a white paper on the effects of the Clean Air Act (CAA) on jobs and the economy. The paper summarizes the empirical evidence on the economic costs and benefits of the act since 1970. The evidence illustrates the many benefits of the CAA and the small impact of pollution controls on employment.

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Reforming the Rulemaking Process Requires More than New Technology

Jan 27, 2011 by Gary Bass*

The three ideas for reforming participation in the rulemaking process in Beth’s Noveck's blog post, "Turning Rule Writers Into Problem Solvers: Creating a 21st Century Government That's Open and Competent by Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review," may or may not be useful. They certainly can and should be tested empirically. But the focus on these participation issues must be complemented by reform of the rulemaking process itself.

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OMB Watch Comments on Obama Regulatory Reform Package

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2011—The Obama administration today released three documents aimed at reforming some aspects of the regulatory process. Two of the actions, an executive order and a memorandum on small businesses and job creation, reaffirm existing approaches that have been in place for decades. Another memorandum seeks greater government accountability by directing agencies to disclose more regulatory compliance information. OMB Watch believes that while the reform package ushers in some positive policy measures, it also contains some problematic language and reinforces false notions regarding job creation and strong public protections.

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Report Finds Regulatory Process Changes Stalled at Midterm Point of Obama Administration

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2011—Today, OMB Watch released the third and final report in a series on public protections and the Obama administration. The new report, The Obama Approach to Public Protection: The Regulatory Process, finds that although the Obama administration's overall regulatory philosophy is strikingly different from that of the previous administration, promised changes to the federal regulatory process have stalled out.

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Senator Plotting Attack on Public Safeguards

Dec 14, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) took to the pages of The Washington Post yesterday to peddle new, anti-regulatory legislation he plans to introduce in 2011. Warner’s legislation “would require federal agencies to identify and eliminate one existing regulation for each new regulation they want to add.”

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Industry Lobbied FAA over Pilot Fatigue Rules, Reports Say

Sep 10, 2010 by Matthew Madia

A proposed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) passenger safety rule aimed at limiting the number of hours pilots can fly may have been delayed over concerns about the rule’s cost-benefit analysis, the Associated Press reports.

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