Cass Sunstein

“Smoking gun” OMB memo on EPA climate change rulemaking is not what it seems

As Dan has mentioned, there has been a bit of a dust-up over a document in EPA’s rulemaking docket relating to EPA’s recent finding that greenhouse gases pose an endangerment to public health and welfare.  As Dan notes, the memo, apparently originating at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is harshly critical …

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Going to the Dogs? Unfair Attacks on Cass Sunstein

A lot of environmentalists are uncomfortable about Cass Sunstein’s appointment as “regulatory czar” at OMB.  Reasonable people may differ about the validity of those concerns.  But now he’s been attacked from another direction — conservatives eager to paint him as an animal-rights fanatic who wants to ban hunting.  For instance, For one particularly colorful attack, …

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Cleaning Up the Bush EPA’s Dry Cleaning Rule

The Washington Post reported that EPA “is reconsidering whether to compel dry cleaners to phase out a cancer-causing chemical used in tens of thousands of operations nationwide.”  In 2006, the Bush Administration issued an air toxics rule for professional dry cleaners using perchloroethylene in which it tightened technology requirements, but refused to phase out use …

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More on OMB and Regulatory Policy

President Obama wants a new executive order on OMB oversight of regulation.  He has issued the following directive: I therefore direct the Director of OMB, in consultation with representatives of regulatory agencies, as appropriate, to produce within 100 days a set of recommendations for a new Executive Order on Federal regulatory review. Among other things, …

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