In August 2012, the Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized another increase in the government-mandated corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFE). The Obama administration claimed that the new 54.5 mpg mandate for cars and light trucks will “save consumers more than $1.7 trillion at the gas pump and reduce U.S. oil consumption by 12 billion barrels.” Lisa Jackson, then-EPA administrator, claimed that “fuel efficiency standards … are another example of how we protect the environment and strengthen the economy at the same time.” Of course these effects are not created in a vacuum; the higher CAFE standards will drive up the average price of a new vehicle by nearly $3,000, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. And so it always goes with new regulations: some government-proclaimed benefits on one side, and costs paid by citizens on the other. This cost-benefit analysis, hopefully, informs the regulatory decision-making process. However, a new study finds that between 13-23% of the supposed benefits never materialize, calling the benefit claims into question.
On May 20, the Supreme Court handed down a potentially important decision in Arlington v. FCC. This decision further embeds the Court’s deference to administrative agencies’ interpretation of statutes. Justice Scalia wrote for the majority that it was irrelevant that this case dealt with the FCC’s interpretation of its own jurisdiction; he insisted the landmark Chevron test still applies. Scalia wrote that the question is “always whether the agency has gone beyond what Congress has permitted it to do, there is no principled basis for carving out some arbitrary subset of such claims as ‘jurisdictional’.”
Americans for Prosperity is proud to support the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlement Act of 2013 (H.R. 1493, S. 714), which would promote transparency in the rulemaking process.
AFP supports dynamic scoring methodology, which would give Congress a more realistic estimate of the fiscal impact of federal legislation.
By Casey Given One of the main objections labor interests make to right-to-work laws is that collective bargaining agreements apply to all employees in a workplace. Therefore, by allowing workers to opt-out of paying dues to the union that represents them, right-to-work laws allegedly create a free rider problem in which individuals can receive the [...]
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