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Regulatory Report Card: Environmental Protection Agency
The quality of regulation depends heavily on its transparency. Taking to heart Justice Louis Brandeis’ stated belief that sunshine is the best disinfectant, the purpose…
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Avoid a Beer Monopoly By Setting the Market Free
The number of craft breweries continues to rise as states free up the market, making it easier for brewers to produce and sell their products.
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Rachel Was Wrong
As the world reexamines Rachel Carson’s anti-pesticide legacy, this paper focuses on the importance of chemicals designed for crop production. Unfortunately, the benefits of these…
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I, Pencil: The Movie
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The Regional Haze Settlement Agreement Is a Terrible Deal for New Mexico
Full Document Available in PDF After months of negotiation, the New Mexico Environment Department in early October proposed a settlement to end…
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Did You Vote Today? How Long Did It Take You?
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Myron Ebell on PBS Frontline: “Climate of Doubt”
A growing number of Americans doubt the urgency or existence of man-made global warming. On Tuesday, October 23, PBS Frontline took a look at the…
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Of Mice, Mushrooms, And Formaldehyde
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The Liberal War on Transparency: Confessions of a Freedom of Information “Criminal”
Now that transparency threatens liberals’ use of government, it is a problem to rein in; we’ve started asking questions and obtaining embarrassing answers, meaning—to them—the…
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Is There a Future for Generic Biotech Crops?
Farmers are eagerly awaiting the expiration of the patents on popular biotech traits over the coming few years. Unfortunately, a quirk in the way biotech…
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The Case for Abolishing the Economic Development Administration
EDA investments do little more than shift resources from one area of the country or the economy to another. EDA’s funding should be immediately revoked,…
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The Marketplace Fairness Act Would Create a State Sales Tax Cartel and Hurt Consumers
The Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832) seeks to capture more tax revenue for states on Internet purchases. Traditional retailers, states, and localities have urged Congress…
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Assessing the Empirical Basis of the “Biodiversity Crisis”
Full Document Available in PDF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For several years now, the World Wildlife Fund and other wildlife interest groups have been…
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EPA’s New Regulatory Front
Full Document Available in PDF The stated mission of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to protect human health and the environment.
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Freeing Europe From the Euro
The basic principles of the common market could save the European Union, if they were applied to monetary policy. Europe’s currency future lies in competition.
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Government Barriers to Georgia’s Growth
Full Document Available in PDF Few states have been hit as hard by the financial…
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The Kids Are Alright
Full Document Available in PDF…
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Fixing Surface Transportation in Massachusetts
If all highway funding responsibility were to be devolved to the states, additional revenue must be found. Innovative financing, modern electronic tolling, and new roadway…
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All Pain and No Gain
The MACT Rule supposedly reduces risk to unborn children by lowering methylmercury concentrations in non-commercial fish. But the EPA provides no empirical evidence that any…
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MCOOL and the Politics of Country-of-Origin Labeling
The Mandatory Country-of-Origin Label (MCOOL) for beef and pork products was brought into force by the United States in 2008. It imposes uneven tracking, segregating,…
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Give a Man a Fish
Attempts to prevent overfishing by promulgating regulations (which are often at odds with subsidies) have proved both ineffective and impossible to enforce. Ending subsidies and…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2012
The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering. Yet the government’s reach extends well beyond the taxes Washington collects and its deficit spending…
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Fixing America’s Crumbling Underground Water Infrastructure
Opening municipal procurement processes to fair competition can help ensure Americans access to clean, reliable, and affordable water in their homes, schools, and businesses for…
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Homesteading the Final Frontier
A proposed law requiring the United States to recognize land claims off planet under specified conditions offers the possibility of legal, tradable land titles, allowing…
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The Real Meaning of “TSCA Modernization”
Modernizing the Toxic Substances Control Act, the federal law that regulates chemicals, could lead to bans on many valuable products, thereby undermining innovation and diverting…
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The Conservative Case for Immigration Tariffs
The current immigration system is a complex bureaucracy that sets quotas, fees, and arbitrary restrictions that prevent most immigrants from attempting legal immigration. Replacing that…
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The 400 Percent Loan, the $36,000 Hotel Room, and the Unicorn
Is a $16 surcharge on a $100 product unfair, unjust, and “predatory”? Hardly anyone flinches, for instance, at a $16 “resort fee” on a $100…
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The Report on Carcinogens
There is nothing wrong in principle with publishing periodic reports identifying substances that pose carcinogenic risks to humans. But it would be a mistake to…
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EPA Regulation of Fuel Economy: Congressional Intent or Climate Coup?
Full Document Available in PDF In May 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule setting standards for motor vehicle…
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Green Chemistry’s March of the Ostriches
Popular myths about man-made chemicals cause lawmakers to bury their heads in the sand and support restrictive regulations that do not realistically address risks to…
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Plastic Bag Bans Are Bad for the Environment
The past several years have seen a groundswell of regulations on plastics, particularly plastic bags and polystyrene food containers. Supporters of these bans claim that…
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EPA’s Shocking New Mexico Power Grab
The EPA engineered an ad hoc regulatory regime under the Clean Air Act in order to run roughshod over New Mexico’s rightful authority and impose…
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A FAIR Criticism
A recent report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform argues for increased immigration restrictions as a way to address the federal budget deficit. However,…
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The True Story of Cosmetics
Many environmental groups want to rid the world of synthetic chemicals. Now they are at war with your makeup.
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ECPA Reform Petition
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Stifling Medical Device Innovation
The United States has long been the home to cutting-edge innovations in the medical device industry. However, increasingly burdensome regulatory policy is driving pioneering research…
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The Other National Debt Crisis
Runaway federal regulation represents the biggest threat to our economy today. To address the problem, lawmakers first need to define it and quantify its costs.
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Free Trade Without Apology
Congress needs to stop trying to appease organized labor and approve free trade deals on the treaties’ own merits.
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New Jersey’s Long Road Ahead
For years, union officials in New Jersey have gotten politicians from both parties to give in to their incessant demands for lavish taxpayer-funded benefits. Today,…
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The EPA Runs Amuck
Full Document Available in PDF On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives…
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Stealing You Blind
Remember when we used to call government employees “public servants”? They’re servants no more—now they’re bureaucratic masters of the universe, claiming inflated salaries and early…
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In America’s National Interest—Canadian Oil
Full Document Available in PDF Canada now provides more oil to the U.S.
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Jump, Jive an’ Reform Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF Cost-benefit analysis has long been a centerpiece of regulatory reform proposals, with…
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Trashing the Poor: The Interstate Garbage Dispte
Full Document Available in PDF This year, Virginia Governor James Gilmore decided that he would “save” his state from…
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Michigan’s Insurance Industry: New Directions
Full Document Available in PDF With the coming of the administration of Republican Governor John Engler in 1991, Michigan’s…
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Reef Madness: The Next Big Green Litigation Campaign?
Now that Russia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is the only industrialized country besides the United States to reject the U.N.-sponsored climate treaty. However,…
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Markets and the Environment: A Critical Reappraisal
The nature of the environmental problem perhaps is best addressed by reviewing the economic problem. The basic economic problem is scarcity. Demands are unlimited…
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Safety, risk and the precautionary principle: rethinking precautionary approaches to the regulation of transgenic plants
Full Document Available in PDF Ever since completion of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in…
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A Free-Market Environmental Program
The Soviet Union should not adopt the U.S. approach to protecting the environment. The fact that the United States has a superior environment has far…
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Rethinking Federalism
Federal preemption of state law is a huge topic, with battles ongoing over the wisdom of preemption at the Federal Communications Commission and in the…