Nearly five years after the U.S. Supreme Court directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether carbon dioxide should be regulated as a "pollutant" under the Clean Air Act, the agency finally issued a proposed standard for carbon emissions from newly constructed power plants.

President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council) recently released its 2011 year-end report, Road Map to Renewal. The report comes one year after Obama tasked the Jobs Council with developing "a set of recommendations to create jobs in the short run and improve our nation's competitiveness over the long term." The report includes recommendations on tax reform, manufacturing, energy, innovation, education, and regulation and has been widely criticized for offering a one-sided "corporate" agenda. While the Jobs Council wrote that "getting the regulatory balance right is important," its proposals on regulatory "reform" narrowly favor corporate interests. The proposals, which mischaracterize the important role of regulation in protecting the American people, will not generate jobs or increase American competitiveness.