Industry Influence and Interference

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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White House Finds in Katrina Recovery 'Opportunity' to Waive Needed Protections

Though most government agencies have worked diligently to alleviate the untold burdens on Hurricane Katrina's victims and to expedite recovery in a safe and effective manner, several agencies have taken the opportunity to waive needed protections, thus possibly putting recovery workers and others at greater risk.

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Data Quality, Uncertainty, Precaution

Sep 12, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The latest issue of Rachel's Environment & Health News reviews the Data Quality Act and concludes with this sharp observation:

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Counting the Cost of Bush Reg "Reforms"

Aug 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Interesting scholarly article reviewing the Bush administration's distortions of the regulatory process, particularly the "reforms" championed by OIRA head John Graham: This article is a review of the regulatory process reforms championed by John Graham's OIRA. Rather than attempting to view them as pro-regulation or antiregulation, I believe it is more useful to ask to whom these various regulatory reforms give power in the regulatory process and whether or not they raise the cost of issuing a regulation. This paper will show that many of these reforms empower the President

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Easing Burdens on Scientific Evidence

Aug 21, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Be sure to catch the latest article from CPR member scholar Lisa Heinzerling, "Doubting Daubert, forthcoming in the Brooklyn Journal of Law & Policy. In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Supreme Court announced that it was liberalizing the rules on admissibility of expert scientific evidence by rejecting a requirement that such evidence be generally accepted in the scientific community. Daubert has had, Heinzerling notes, just the opposite effect from the one the Court said it intended. Among other reasons:

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OIRA meets over MSHA Diesel Rule

Aug 12, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA and the Department of Labor met with representatives from the National Mining Association, FMC Corporation (a major chemical producer), as well as a lobbyist from Patton Boggs over the Mine Safety and Health Administration's diesel rule.

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Regulation and Competitiveness

Anti-regulatory arguments claim that regulation is inherently a burden that weakens the competitiveness of American businesses in the global market. This issue brief examines the many scholarly studies that indicate the opposite is true: regulation does not hinder U.S. competitiveness but, instead, may actually increase the competitive advantage of the United States.

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Regulation and Competitiveness

Aug 12, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The industry-funded position in favor of rollbacks often includes an argument that regulation to protect the public is a burden on American businesses that hinder them from competing in the global marketplace. The evidence from the economics literature tells us something much, much different. Learn more in this OMB Watch issue brief, Regulation and Competitiveness.

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The lobbying Roberts failed to disclose

Aug 11, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts explained his failure to disclose a lobbying contact on behalf of sunscreen makers by noting that he had considered the meeting an act of legal representation somehow distinct from lobbying, because the substance of his conversation with the administration was that the industry would litigate labeling requirements as a First Amendment problem. Legal vs. lobbying? Consider what the Lobby Disclosure Act has to say about what constitutes a lobbying contact: oral or written communication check made to a covered official

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Why Performance Standards May Be Superior to Cap-and-Trade

Cap-and-trade regimes do a worse job at stimulating innovative pollution control methods than performance standards, according to a new scholarly article challenging the industry-backed position that emissions trading and market-based programs are inherently superior to so-called “command-and-control” regulation. This analysis reviews the article and outlines the reasons why performance standards may be superior to cap-and-trade.

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High Court Nominee Admits Lobbying OMB, FDA

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, Jr. conceded that he omitted records of lobbying the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from his other public disclosures, after Newsday uncovered the lobbying activities.

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