Regulation
Think Tanks on the Auction Block
I’ve previously expressed some skeptical views about the so-called think tanks that play such a significant role in Beltrway policy debates. (See this post) The New Republic has an interesting story about the increasing dependence of think tanks on big money Here is the crux: Nowadays if donors don’t like the results they get, they …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmentalists Sue Over New Lake Tahoe Plan: Is the Perfect the Enemy of the Good?
The Sierra Club and a local neighborhood group recently sued the bistate Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, challenging TRPA’s just-adopted Regional Plan for the Lake Tahoe Basin. That development strikes me as unfortunate and counterproductive. Let me briefly explain why. The Lake Tahoe Basin, which straddles the California-Nevada border, has since 1968 been governed under a bistate Compact negotiated …
CONTINUE READINGConfessions of a Regulatory Czar
The official title of the White House’s regulatory czar is deceptively abstruse, the Director of the the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But OIRA plays a crucial role in government policy by reviewing all major proposed regulations. Environmentalists have long decried OIRA as a place …
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CONTINUE READINGOMB’s Dubious Claim to Regulatory Expertise
The head of OIRA – the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB– is often called the White House’s regulation czar. OIRA is charged with reviewing the cost-benefit analysis of all major government regulations. This task is all about economics. Yet OIRA has never established the kind of reputation for economics expertise held by …
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CONTINUE READINGSanders/Boxer carbon tax
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer released today a pair of bills meant to increase the price of carbon in the United States. (Bill summary; carbon tax bill; fuel subsidies bill) The “Climate Protection Act of 2013” would impose a fee of $20 per ton (carbon or methane equivalent) on coal, petroleum, natural gas and …
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CONTINUE READINGA New Feast for Environmental Policy Wonks
The Winter 2013 issue of the always-invaluable Journal of Economic Perspectives is just out, and it is a treasure for environmental policy people. It features a symposium on tradeable pollution permits, with contributions from among others William Pizer and Robert Stavins. It not only reviews the history of tradeable permits in air pollution, but also …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Precarious Legality of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis has become a ubiquitous part of regulation, enforced by the Office of Management and Budget. A weak cost-benefit analysis means that the regulation gets kicked back to the agency. Yet there is no statute that provides for this; it’s entirely a matter of Presidential dictate. And reliance on cost-benefit analysis often flies in …
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CONTINUE READINGCellulosic Biofuel mandate for 2013
I mentioned the other day that the D.C. Circuit struck EPA’s cellulosic biofuel mandate for 2012. Today, the New York Times reported on EPA’s 2013 quota. EPA has proposed to raise the mandate to 14 million (ethanol-equivalent) gallons for 2013. EPA explicitly stated that it believes its 2013 proposal “is consistent with” the D.C. Circuit …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law and Policy Events for Couch Potatoes
UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law’s joint Climate Change and Business Research Initiative has produced a number of public events featuring experts on pressing environmental law and policy issues. We now have on-line video recordings of many of them, for those of you who prefer not to leave the comfort of your home or …
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CONTINUE READINGD.C. Circuit’s biofuels mandate ruling
The D.C. Circuit issued an opinion last Friday in American Petroleum Institute v. EPA, concerning EPA’s biofuels mandate. (N.Y. Times; slip opinion). The part of the mandate at issue required refiners to incorporate higher levels of cellulosic fuel into transportation fuel. Cellulosic biofuel is in the class of “advanced biofuels” that could actually offset greenhouse gas …
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