Regulation Reporting Malpractice Continues: Newspapers Increase Usage Of “Job-Killing Regulation” Language By 17,550%

April 25, 2012 3:04 pm ET by Oliver Willis A new study from NYU’s Institute for Policy Integrity found that usage of the phrase “job-killing regulation” in newspapers has increased 17,550% between 2007 and 2011. The Institute’s executive director, Michael A. Livermore, notes: Claims that regulations have a significant impact on American employment call for [...]

Dirty secrets behind the campaign to poison your air

John Walke’s Blog Posted April 23, 2012 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy By John Walke, Clean Air Director/Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council Sometimes a moment captures dirty, squirming truths like a rat trap. That happened last week in the Senate. The Senate’s clean air subcommittee convened [...]

OMB Watch — Letting the Fox Guard the Henhouse – Literally

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) made the front page of The New York Times this week for its proposal to change the way chickens and other poultry are inspected in processing plants before they are sent to supermarkets and butcher shops all across the country. In January, the [...]

DEMOS — Yet Another Way NOT To Decrease Gas Prices

Here is a list of things that have a direct impact on current gas prices: oil speculation; increased tensions with, and sanctions on, oil-producing nations like Iran; and high levels of global demand due to economic growth and increased consumption among developing nations. Here is a list of things that do not have an impact [...]

Economic Policy Institute – Report to Congress confirms large benefits, modest costs of new EPA rules

The Office of Management and Budget just posted a draft of its annual report to Congress on the benefits and costs of federal regulations. This official documentation of all major regulations reviewed by OMB includes an individual listing of the benefits and costs of all such rules finalized by the Obama administration through Sept. 30, [...]

Friends of the Earth – End corporate welfare for oil companies

President Obama has identified over $4.7 billion that the oil and gas industry should pay under standard tax rules this year but that will remain in company coffers because the industry receives preferential treatment  in the code. This special treatment gives oil and gas companies advantages that most other companies, individuals, and families don’t receive, [...]

NRDC – Nuclear Safety Deferred: U.S. Reactors One Year after Fukushima

In the days that followed the 2011 Great Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, news outlets around the globe followed the unfolding catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant with what seemed like minute-by-minute coverage. The world witnessed the Japanese rescue workers struggling to keep the plant’s nuclear cores from overheating and melting. We saw graphic [...]

Clean Air Watch – EPA to Congress: low-sulfur gas would cost only a penny a gallon

Here is a letter to Congress from the US EPA clarifying the the scope and cost of gasoline changes related to the so-called Tier 3 clean-car program under consideration. This ought to put to rest the oil industry charges that EPA is planning to do more than just reduce sulfur in gasoline levels, and that [...]

Public Citizen – Bringing the heat of reality to a GOP freeze on public safeguards

The U.S. House of Representatives refuses to let up on its quixotic mission to destroy public safeguards. Its latest incarnation is H.R. 4078, the “Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act of 2012,” a misguided bill that seeks to halt regulatory protections until the unemployment rate is equal or less than six percent. It was the topic [...]

The Economist Recycles Old Right-Wing Ideas to Gut Public Protections

By Rena Steinzor Reprinted with permission from the Center For Progressive Reform The Economist’s February 18 edition offers a cover package of five articles on “Over-regulated America” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Our British friends want you to know there’s a problem here in the States that needs fixing: A study for the Small Business [...]