OpenMarket

This week the State Policy Network is holding its legendary annual meeting, this time in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. With hundreds of delegates from dozens of organizations and more sessions and events than any single person could take in, the annual meeting offers an overwhelming plentitude of smart ideas on public policy. If you're in town, you'll definitely want to set aside time tomorrow afternoon for the panel sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, How to Launch a Digital Campaign with Limited Budget and Resources.

Over at Morning Consult, Iain Murray and I have an op-ed explaining why tariffs are ill-suited to achieving the Trump administration’s economic and foreign policy goals: We often talk about trade between nations as if it is done through the medium of government. But “Mexico” does not trade with “America.”

July 31^st, 2018, was one of the most exciting days for financial technology regulation in recent memory. Around 10 a.m. that morning was when the long-awaited Treasury report on nonbank financials, fintech, and innovation was released, outlining the White House’s position on fintech and nonbank regulation. Then around 2 p.m. that same afternoon, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that they would begin accepting applications for the much anticipated “fintech” charter.

Both of this year’s economics Nobel laureates have been on the short list for some time. Both are deserving, as David Henderson writes in The Wall Street Journal. Paul Romer is best known for his work on the nature of economic growth, and William Nordhaus for his environmental economics, as well as coauthoring, with fellow laureate Paul Samuelson, the 20^th century’s most widely used economics textbook.

Several of the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s most expensive and far-reaching Clean Air Act regulations are back in the news now that the Trump administration is trying to scale them back. While there is little doubt that potential changes to the Clean Power Plan, Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology, and Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules could save billions of dollars and countless jobs, they are far from the only Obama EPA rules in need of review.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released the third iteration of its guidance for automated vehicles, Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0 (AV 3.0). Notably, this guidance is the product of a department-wide effort that covers all surface transportation modes, including the interface of maritime infrastructure and trucks at intermodal port facilities.

Deregulation is a topline goal of the current administration. Leading the pack in terms of costs savings from reducing red tape is the Department of Labor, according to recent report from the American Action Forum, with $417.2 million.

In the news last week, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) got a new name (USMCA) that nobody will use, and President Trump sent everyone a text message. Meanwhile, the 2018 Federal Register topped 50,000 pages and agencies issued new regulations, from farm payments to a safety zone in Cape Fear.

A dozen states led by Indiana this week filed an amicus brief asking the federal district court in Seattle, Washington to dismiss a climate change lawsuit brought by King County (where Seattle is the county seat) against Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell. King County argues that the companies’ production of fossil fuels contributes to global warming and thus constitutes a “public nuisance” and “trespass” that the court should remedy.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing this week on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to strengthen the transparency of regulatory science.