Regulatory Policy

Regulatory safeguards play a vital role in protecting us from hazards and ensuring that companies that pollute, make unsafe products, and create workplace hazards bear the cost of cleaning up their messes and preventing injuries and deaths. Still, the regulatory system is far from perfect: Rules take too long to develop; enforcement is often feeble; and political pressure from regulated industries has led to weak safeguards.

These systemic problems are made all the more severe by the determination of the Trump administration to undercut sensible safeguards across virtually all aspects of federal regulation. Moreover, the President and his team have taken aim at the the process by which such safeguards are developed, aiming to take a system already slanted in favor of industry profit at the expense of health, safety and the environment, and make it even less protective. For example, where critics of the use of cost-benefit analysis see a system that understates the value of safeguards and overstates the cost of implementing them -- making it difficult to adopt needed protections -- the Trump administration seeks simply to ignore benefits of safeguards, pretending they do not exist. The result is a regulatory system that fails to enforce landmark laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and more.

CPR exposes and opposes efforts by opponents of sensible safeguards to undermine the regulatory system, fighting back against knee-jerk opposition to environmental, health, and safety protections. Below, see what CPR Members Scholars and staff have had to say in reports, testimony, op-eds and more. Use the search box to narrow the list.

Trump Is Trying to Cripple the Environment and Democracy

Writing in The Hill, Robert Glicksman and Alejandro Camacho dissect the Trump administration's latest effort to enfeeble environmental protections, this time by devising new regulations intended to undercut the National Environment Policy Act.

Type: Op-Eds (Jan. 18, 2020)
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Author(s): Robert Glicksman, Alejandro Camacho
Did a Federal Ethics Loophole Worsen the Vaping Crisis

The lax federal ethics policies on the revolving door between government and industry may have contributed to the vaping crisis, Matt Shudtz and Jeff Hauser write in an op-ed in The Regulatory Review.

Type: Op-Eds (Dec. 23, 2019)
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Author(s): Matt Shudtz
Webinar: Achieving Social Justice Through Better Regulation

Following up on CPR's June 2019 Regulation as Social Justice Conference, and the subsequent report on it, on December 11, 2019, Anne Rolfes of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and CPR's Amy Sinden and James Goodwin discussed the future of regulation, and how it can do a better job of serving the interests of the political dispossessed.

Type: Webinars (Dec. 11, 2019)
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Author(s): Amy Sinden, James Goodwin
The rise and quick fall of the West tragedy's EPA rule

The rise and quick fall of the West tragedy's EPA rule, by Thomas McGarity, December 7, 2019, in The Waco Tribune

Type: Op-Eds (Dec. 7, 2019)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
The Port Neches disaster shows the risk of Trump rolling back environmental regulations

The Port Neches disaster shows the risk of Trump rolling back environmental regulations, by Thomas McGarity, December 5, 2019, The Dallas Morning News

Type: Op-Eds (Dec. 5, 2019)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
The Trump Administration's Insult to West, Texas

The Trump Administration's Insult to West, Texas, by Thomas McGarity, December 1, 2019, The Austin American-Statesman

Type: Op-Eds (Dec. 1, 2019)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
With Port Neches burning, do we really think gutting the EPA is wise

With Port Neches burning, do we really think gutting the EPA is wise?, by Thomas McGarity, November 29, 2019, The Houston Chronicle

Type: Op-Eds (Nov. 29, 2019)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
How to Improve Allocations of Regulatory Authority

How to Improve Allocations of Regulatory Authority, by Alejandro Camacho and Robert Glicksman, October 22, 2019, The Regulatory Review

Type: Op-Eds (Oct. 22, 2019)
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Author(s): Robert Glicksman, Alejandro Camacho
A Better Approach to Factoring Federalism Considerations into Regulatory Strategies

A Better Approach to Factoring Federalism Considerations into Regulatory Strategies, by Alejandro E. Camacho and Robert L. Glicksman, Notice & Comment, October 14, 2019

Type: Op-Eds (Oct. 14, 2019)
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Author(s): Robert Glicksman, Alejandro Camacho
Joint Letter to the President re Federal Advisory Committees

CPR joins 70+ organizations calling on the President to rescind an executive order arbitrarily reducing the number of federal advisory committees, October 4, 2019.

Type: Letters to Agencies (Oct. 4, 2019)
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