Mr. President, What About These Regulations?

Tue, 2011-08-30 17:33 | Regulation | Sam Batkins
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In the constant tête-à-tête between Congress and the administration over regulations, President Obama attempted to answer Speaker Boehner’s call to list all regulations over $1 billion.  The President listed seven regulations, totaling (under high-end cost estimates) $109.5 billion.  A cursory review of the list reveals nothing from a single independent agency, nothing addressing greenhouse gas regulation, or even the “historic rule” to control emissions for trucks.

A glance through our comprehensive database of agency rulemakings for 2011 reveals several regulations with a cost greater than $1 billion, four of which are final. 

  • Perhaps the most notable omission from the President’s letter was EPA’s “Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium-and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles.”
    • Only last week OIRA Administrator Cass Sunstein praised the “historic rule” for its purported $50 billion in fuel savings, but he of course neglected to mention its historic burden.
    • $8.1 billion in immediate costs, $47.3 billion in long-term costs, and possible unintended consequences like a “global increase in emissions.”  It’s no surprise the President omitted this “historic rule.”
  • The President also failed to mention an onerous “Cooling Water Intake Structures” proposed rule from EPA; Agency estimates peg present value “costs to society” of $9.8 billion.
  • Also omitted from the President’s letter was the cost federal regulations can impose on states and local governments.  These “unfunded mandates” cost states billions of dollars and a proposed rule for school lunches is the biggest culprit.
    • According to agency estimates, “the total costs of compliance with this rule will reach $6.8 billion.”
    • The administration even admitted, under its Unfunded Mandates Reform Act analysis, that states and localities would bear heavy costs as a result of compliance with the national standard.
  • Total Cost of Omitted Rules: $24.7 billion.

This regulatory Rubik’s Cube already looks complicated; perhaps most troubling, it excludes all independent agencies, Dodd-Frank regulations, and implementation of the President’s health care bill.  What does the administration guess those rules will cost?

So, according to the President, things aren’t that bad if you exclude other costly EPA rules, pricey unfunded mandates, and all independent agency actions.