Retaking Rationality
Retaking Rationality

Author: Richard L. Revesz

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0195368576

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That America's natural environment has been degraded and despoiled over the past 25 years is beyond dispute. Nor has there been any shortage of reasons why-short-sighted politicians, a society built on over-consumption, and the dramatic weakening of environmental regulations. In Retaking Rationality, Richard L. Revesz and Michael A. Livermore argue convincingly that one of the least understood-and most important-causes of our failure to protect the environment has been a misguided rejection of reason. The authors show that environmentalists, labor unions, and other progressive groups have declined to participate in the key governmental proceedings concerning the cost-benefit analysis of federal regulations. As a result of this vacuum, industry groups have captured cost-benefit analysis and used it to further their anti-regulatory ends. Beginning in 1981, the federal Office of Management and Budget and the federal courts have used cost-benefit analysis extensively to determine which environmental, health, and safety regulations are approved and which are sent back to the drawing board. The resulting imbalance in political participation has profoundly affected the nation's regulatory and legal landscape. But Revesz and Livermore contend that economic analysis of regulations is necessary and that it needn't conflict with-and can in fact support-a more compassionate approach to environmental policy. Indeed, they show that we cannot give up on rationality if we truly want to protect our natural environment. Retaking Rationality makes clear that by embracing and reforming cost-benefit analysis, and by joining reason and compassion, progressive groups can help enact strong environmental and public health regulation.

The Cost-benefit State
The Cost-benefit State

Author: Cass R. Sunstein

Publisher: American Bar Association

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9781590310540

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This book discusses the current topic of Federal Government regulations increasingly assessed by asking whether the benefits of the regulation justifies the cost of the regulation.

Government Operations
Government Operations

Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G

Publisher: BiblioGov

Published: 2013-06

Total Pages: 78

ISBN-13: 9781289102913

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GAO reported on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) major efforts to prepare cost-benefit analyses to support regulatory decisions, as required under Executive Order 12291. In addition, it discussed the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) review of those analyses and identified many problems that affect the potential usefulness of cost-benefit analyses for assessing environmental regulations. GAO found large gaps in the underlying scientific information which EPA uses to estimate the environmental benefits of its regulatory alternatives. EPA has also had difficulty determining how much people are willing to pay for health and environmental improvements. However, a cost-benefit analysis can still provide useful information to regulatory decisionmakers if EPA presents a range of dollar values which reflect the uncertainty of the estimates. Some environmental laws place more emphasis on the level of cleanup to be achieved than on the costs involved, and they may prohibit or limit the use of cost-benefit analyses in setting standards and regulations. In addition, cost-benefit analyses are not transmitted to Congress. Executive Order 12291 generally requires EPA and other federal agencies to provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis for any major regulation. However, the Order allows for a great deal of flexibility in establishing the estimated costs of proposed regulations, and EPA has not always considered all important compliance costs to determine whether a proposed rule is a major regulation. In addition, GAO found that EPA failed to consider all possibilities in determining which alternative would yield a higher net benefit. GAO also found that EPA cost-benefit analyses generally highlighted only single-dollar estimates in summary form, while ranges of estimates for other categories were available but not used. Despite these problems, OMB has generally accepted the EPA analyses.

Cost-benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit Analysis

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Publisher:

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13:

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Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2006-05-28

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 0309100771

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Promoting human health and safety by reducing exposures to risks and harms through regulatory interventions is among the most important responsibilities of the government. Such efforts encompass a wide array of activities in many different contexts: improving air and water quality; safeguarding the food supply; reducing the risk of injury on the job, in transportation, and from consumer products; and minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals. Estimating the magnitude of the expected health and longevity benefits and reductions in mortality, morbidity, and injury risks helps policy makers decide whether particular interventions merit the expected costs associated with achieving these benefits and inform their choices among alternative strategies. Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analysis provides useful recommendations for how to measure health-related quality of- life impacts for diverse public health, safety, and environmental regulations. Public decision makers, regulatory analysts, scholars, and students in the field will find this an essential review text. It will become a standard reference for all government agencies and those consultants and contractors who support the work of regulatory programs.

Reviving Rationality
Reviving Rationality

Author: Michael A. Livermore

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-06-17

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0197539467

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For decades, administrations of both political parties have used cost-benefit analysis to evaluate and improve federal policy in a variety of areas, including health and the environment. Today, this model is under grave threat. In Reviving Rationality, Michael Livermore and Richard Revesz explain how Donald Trump has destabilized the decades-long bipartisan consensus that federal agencies must base their decisions on evidence, expertise, and analysis. Administrative agencies are charged by law with protecting values like stable financial markets and clean air. Their decisions often have profound consequences, affecting everything from the safety of workplaces to access to the dream of home ownership. Under the Trump administration, agencies have been hampered in their ability to advance these missions by the conflicting ideological whims of a changing cast of political appointees and overwhelming pressure from well-connected interest groups. Inconvenient evidence has been ignored, experts have been sidelined, and analysis has been used to obscure facts, rather than inform the public. The results are grim: incoherent policy, social division, defeats in court, a demoralized federal workforce, and a loss of faith in government's ability to respond to pressing problems. This experiment in abandoning the norms of good governance has been a disaster. Reviving Rationality explains how and why our government has abandoned rationality in recent years, and why it is so important for future administrations to restore rigorous cost-benefit analysis if we are to return to a policymaking approach that effectively tackles the most pressing problems of our era.