Regulation

There has been an intense focus on the role of regulation in job creation.  Al Gore, Paul Krugman, and EPA’s Gina McCarthy have all argued that environmental regulations create jobs.  According to four companies, however, EPA regulations, most notably its Utility MACT rule, will fully close at least 24 power plants, eliminate 12.6 gigawatts of capacity, and destroy more than 1,850 jobs across the U.S.

Companies

Imagine Steven McQueen’s high-speed chase in Bullitt, only this time he’s not in a ‘68 Mustang GT Fastback with a 390 CID, 325 HP carbureted V8; he’s clambering after mobsters in a 90 horsepower, 65 MPG electric hybrid. This is not an alternate reality; it’s the Environmental Protection Agency’s CAFE future, scheduled to be finalized this summer.
 

In an interview yesterday, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein echoed his claim that President Obama’s regulatory record favorably compares to President Bush’s.

Although primarily a budget plan documenting a path to a sustainable fiscal future, the House Republican “Path to Prosperity” also contains several crucial regulatory reforms.  From Dodd-Frank to environmental regulations, the Path to Prosperity is a vast improvement over the president’s $231 billion regulatory expansion.

Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would:

“Congress should.”  “Congress could.”  “Congress should.”  President Obama began his press conference by passing plenty of blame to Congress.  Given his recent regulatory record, however, the president need only look in the mirror to apportion blame.

A new American Action Forum project has begun tracking power plant closings from EPA’s regulatory overreach.  Despite claims that “regulations create jobs,” there are two dozen power plants across the country that will soon (by 2015) shutdown because of overregulation. 

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On March 7, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will formally publish a pair of proposed rules addressing health care information technology (HIT).  Both rules make adjustments, starting in 2014, to the “meaningful use” threshold.  “Meaningful use” is a condition health care providers must meet to be eligible for electronic health records (EHR) incentive payments.

As congressional gridlock continues, there is a lot more at stake than payroll taxes, unemployment benefits, doctors' payments, improving job growth and a better budget outlook. Too often good policy gets forgotten amid financial decisions. Unfortunately, spectrum auctions are treated as merely a budgetary means to pay for other programs.

EPA just released new regulations on Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) production but what does the rule actually do? The regulation dictates new maximum achievable control technologies (MACTs), the most stringent standard under law.  These changes were dictated to reduce facility emission of PVC below 10 tons a year or below 25 tons a year for all toxic chemicals.

What is being regulated: vents, stripped resins, equipment leaks, wastewater, heat exchanges, and storage vessels.

Costs:

On regulations: “In the coming year, agencies will continue to pursue the regulatory reforms identified in the retrospective review process, producing billions more in savings by simplifying rules, eliminating redundancies, and identifying more cost-effective ways of doing things.”

WASHINGTON- The American Action Network and Crossroads GPS today announced an event titled “How Does the Executive Branch’s