Obama's 'regulatory czar' Cass Sunstein is awful for environment, health, safety
Reinvigorating Protections for Health, Safety and the Environment
In January 2009, media reports indicated that then President-elect Barack Obama had selected Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein to direct the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The job is perhaps better known by its informal title: “regulatory czar,” so named because the holder is charged with signing off on all major proposed regulations.
Over the years, OIRA has deployed a variety of methods to accomplish that task, and only time will tell whether Professor Sunstein will effect the turnaround that CPR Member Scholars believe the office so desperately needs. But in a report issued in late January 2009, a group of CPR member Scholars expressed serious concern about Professor Sunstein’s support for the very methods used to weaken and defeat badly needed regulations.
Among the concerns raised in the report, Reinvigorating Protection of Health, Safety, and the Environment: The Choices Facing Cass Sunstein:
- Sunstein is a stout supporter of cost-benefit analysis as a primary tool for assessing regulations, despite its imprecision and the ease with which it is manipulated to achieve preferred policy outcomes;
- He supports such cost-benefit approaches as the widely condemned “senior discount” method for undervaluing the lives of seniors in cost-benefit analyses, an approach even the Bush Administration was forced to disown;
- He rejects the “precautionary principle” as a basis for regulating, thus ensuring that dangerous pollutants and products will be given the “benefit of the doubt,” rather than well-grounded concerns about health and safety;
- He supports the centralization of authority over regulatory decisions in the White House – OIRA in particular, even though Congress delegated the exercise of expert judgment to the regulatory agencies, not to OIRA’s staff economists in the White House; and
- He has written that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration might be unconstitutional.
Co-authors of the report are CPR Member Scholars John Applegate
(Indiana University–Bloomington), Thomas McGarity (University of
Texas), Sidney Shapiro (Wake Forest University), Amy Sinden (Temple
University), Rena Steinzor (University of Maryland), Robert R.M.
Verchick (Loyola University–New Orleans), and CPR Policy Analyst James
Goodwin.
- Read Reinvigorating Protection of Health, Safety, and the Environment: The Choices Facing Cass Sunstein (180 kb). Read the news release (50 kb).
- Read Rena Steinzor's January 26, 2009 CPRBlog entry on Cass Sunstein's views on regulatory policy. Or her January 9, 2009 CPRBlog entry on the Sunstein nomination.
3 stars
Sunstein’s views about the Internet and what it is doing to society are troubling enough. Far more problematic, however, is what Sunstein has suggested we should do to deal with this supposed problem. After Sunstein worked himself up to a boil about all this in Republic.com, he tossed out what I believe is the single most dangerous public policy idea for the Internet suggested in the past 10 years: mandatory “electronic sidewalks” for cyberspace. Plant Pots | IP PBX | Thermostat
Anyway, Professor Sunstein’s new position as head of OIRA gives him the ability influence federal regulatory decisions in both a procedural and substantive way. In terms of substance, it gives him an important platform to subtly “nudge” the regulatory philosophy and direction of the Obama Administration on many matters, including Internet policy. So, what has Professor Sunstein had to say about Internet policy in his recent work? Sunstein has developed his thinking about these issues primarily in his two recent books: Republic.com (2000) and Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge (2006). But he’s also had a few relevant things to say about Internet issues in his recent book with Richard Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2008). Who | Louisville Home
compost tumbler rain barrel
I can definitely agree that Obama's choice for environmental regulator is a BAD one. Hopefully he can redeem himself! watch date night online | watch world cup online
Horrible choice by Obama. That being said I think he has made many good choices in the past and has had success so far bringing the country together. Watch Date Night Online | Watch the Joneses
Legalizing and regulating marijuana would reduce violent crime, repair civil liberties, and replace wasteful government spending with new tax revenues.
Legalizing and regulating marijuana would reduce violent crime, repair civil liberties, watch disney movies online and replace wasteful government spending with new tax revenues.
This is really very nice blog, I am impressed.
Just another person who will pass our environmental problems off on the next person to take his job.
very informative post!
Dr. Sunstein shouldn't be in that position to be influencing policy the way he is. I don't feel safe, next think you know guns will be shooting all over the place. http://fingerprintgunsafesite.com/gun-safe-accessories-what-do-you-need/ Next time, we should have a vote on the position.
Hello! I have read a lot on this topic,this is a great post. Will be back to read more sale mbt shoes! Please come visit my site:http://www.antimbt.com/ we supply Anti Shoe when you got time.We have Mbt Anti Shoe ,MBT Lami Shoes,MBT Sport Shoes,MBT Chapa Shoes and MBT M.Walk Shoes online anti mbt shoe hope you are interesting Mbt shoes clearance and i'm so adding this to my wishlist cheap mbt shoes It is a very nice stuff you are sharing us Anti Mbt! Thanks for it !Mbt shoes are so good for you,you will love Mbt Anti Shoe especially!