CEI Today: Obama EPA regs due today, private lobbyists get public pensions, and a net benefit of regulations?

DUE TODAY – OBAMA EPA GLOBAL WARMING REGS

EPA Admits Obama Global Warming Regs Unrelated to Actual Climate Change

The Obama EPA is scheduled today to unveil massive new restrictions on new power plants. The rule will set limits on greenhouse gas emissions from future power plans and imposes costly technology mandates on coal plants.

Meanwhile, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy admitted this week that the Obama administration’s new carbon emissions regulations are unrelated to actual climate change. “The indicators on the [EPA’s own] website are broad global indicators. . .of impacts associated with climate change,” McCarthy told Rep. Mike Pompeo. “They are not performance requirements or impacts related to any particular act.”

PENSION FUND PROBLEMS – TREY KOVACS

Fresno Bee: Private lobbyists collecting public pensions is illegal gift

State and local pension funds face unfunded liabilities ranging from $3 trillion to $5 trillion, according to various reports. But did you know that many of these desperately underfunded public pension plans have been providing pensions to private citizens who do not perform any work as public employees?

NET BENEFIT OF REGULATION? – WAYNE CREWS

Openmarket.org: Executive Branch Review of Federal Regulations — Still Highly Incomplete

In the 2014 fiscal budget proposal, the White House praised regulation of auto safety, energy efficiency and credit cards, and claimed, “In fact, the net benefits of regulations issued through the third fiscal year of the first term have exceeded $91 billion.” Well, let’s look at that.

The upshot is that major, significant or economically significant rules with cost estimates are a fraction of the total number of rules in the pipeline or finalized, and the number with cost and benefit analysis an even smaller proportion despite repeated annual assertions that “reported monetized benefits continue to be significantly higher than the monetized costs.”