When the Obama administration moves forward with stronger environmental protection, some see a "phony theology" at work. But most thoughtful observers see a moderate administration steering a middle course, irritating businesses with increased protections when they are cost-benefit justified, but also frustrating environmentalists with a relatively slow pace...

Imagine you're the CEO of a major national corporation with two million employees and 312 million customers. Now imagine having no consistent plan to revisit past decisions to determine what worked and what didn't.

That's how our government behaved until a year ago when President Obama put new rules...

The office in the White House that considers the costs and benefits of new regulations is being accused of bias in a recent report report by the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR). Concerned that the Obama administration is using its political compass to reduce public protections, the...

Anyone who's shopped for health insurance knows what a headache the process can be. The disorienting maze of features, benefits, and coverage options can leave consumers under-protected even when they've overpaid.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is trying to create a clearer, better menu for policy...

According to some, the housing bubble came crashing down in the fall of 2008 partially due to the predatory lending practices of mortgage banks. Part of the problem may have been consumer confusion when it came to the fine print of complex financing arrangements. Unknowingly, homebuyers might have signed on...

Thirty years ago, President Reagan put cost-benefit analysis at the heart of how agencies like the EPA and OSHA do business and initiated one of the most important recent developments in how the federal government works.

In a 1981 executive order, Reagan instructed the Office of Information and...

Regulation has become a hot topic in recent weeks. There have been executive orders to reform them, hearings to scrutinize them and budgets to defund them. But in all these forums, one side of the balance sheet is often absent -- the fact that regulations create significant economic benefits.

Tuesday's news of a new executive order on regulatory review was not welcomed by some progressives. President Obama announced his move in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, and it was widely perceived as an olive branch to regulated businesses.

But in its substance, the

When human health and safety are at risk, Americans expect their government to protect them. We assume we are guarded against risks like lead in children's toys or poisons in our drinking water. And for the most part, these protections deliver benefits well beyond what they cost.

A proposal...

A mini-firestorm erupted recently in response to the EPA's attempt to stall on a regulation to clean up mercury pollution from industrial plants; environmentalists see the move as a political cave in the face of a newly empowered congressional opposition.

The political case for stalling may be...

With the announcement earlier this week that President Obama will nominate Jacob Lew to replace Peter Orszag at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), it is worth taking a fresh look at how decisions are made within that agency. When the Environmental Protection Agendy (EPA), or any other federal...

Cap-and-trade is business' best friend.

Though lawmakers are contemplating scrapping cap-and-trade on carbon as "political poison" its flexible market-based structure makes it the most efficient and business-friendly way to reduce pollution.

That is why Republicans proposed the idea in the 1980s.

None of the climate change bills...

The climate change bill that passed the House last summer looks likely to die in the Senate. So, with the political machinery in Washington grinding to a halt, and an upcoming mid-term election cycle that looks bad for Democrats, is climate change legislation dead for the foreseeable future?

Maybe not....

Both Enviros and Industry May Be Reading Too Much Into Riverkeeper v. EPA

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's paper trail on the environment is slim, but one decision has drawn praise from environmentalists, and some concerns from business. In Riverkeeper v. EPA, Sotomayor wrote the opinion for the court of appeals. She...

Last month, MIT economics professor John Reilly was surprised to learn that his April 2007 report was in the news two years after its release.

His research on the costs of cap-and-trade systems found only a modest cost for American families under the plan. But, some members of...

Two years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gases as pollution. It was a decision that should have set off a landslide of action that would begin to rein in carbon emissions in America. But in the nearly 22 months before he left office,...

Obama wants to stop energy companies from eating our lunch - we shouldn't fight him.

In our backwards political climate, President Obama's sensible carbon cap proposal has gotten him in hot water with everyone from utilities to members of the green movement. While other plans give away pollution permits to...