Regulating Growth Out of the Economy Can We Get It Back?
Myron Ebell President of Freedom Action and Director, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute (202) 331-2256; [email protected]
The New Mexico Prosperity Project and the Rio Grande Foundation Albuquerque, New Mexico 5th April 2013 CEI background
Founded 1984 and located in Washington, DC $6 million annual budget Thirty staff Issue analysis, policy formation, advocacy, litigation Focus on regulatory issues: property rights, environmental, energy, financial, information technology, labor, telecommunications, nanny state, international trade, UN environmental treaties, constitutional federalism We fight to win. Where is CEI coming from?
Non-profit, non-partisan public policy institute specializing in regulatory issues from a free market perspective. CEI accepts no government funding and depends entirely on the generosity of private individuals, foundations, and corporations.
Freedom We support policies that advance the institutions of political and economic freedom. Objectivity We believe that the scientific and economic facts must be scrupulously respected, regardless of our political preferences. Life is a risk We reject the one-sided precautionary approach. Comparing the resources of the two sides of the debate
Sierra Club CEI —7 Environmental Defense Fund Heritage Foundation—3 Natural Resources Defense Council Cato Institute—2 World Wildlife Fund American Enterprise Institute—0 National Wildlife Federation Institute for Energy Research—5 Center for Biological Diversity Nat’l. Center for Public Policy Research—2 Wilderness Society Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow—3 Greenpeace Heartland Institute—3 Defenders of Wildlife ALEC—2 Friends of the Earth Other groups—fewer than 20
Total budget: $675 million Total staff: fewer than 50! Our economic problem illustrated Close-Up of the Economic Growth Gap Some possible causes of our continuing economic stagnation
Fiscal and Monetary Regulatory 2008 Financial crash, mortgage Environmental and energy crisis, and house price decline regulations Wall Street bailout The stimulus, record deficits, and Financial regulations runaway federal spending ObamaCare regulations Federal Reserve Policies: zero interest rates and monetary expansion High taxes Looming Entitlement Crisis Annual Cost of Regulation: $1.8 trillion Source: Ten Thousand Commandments by Wayne Crews, CEI
All other, $87 Financial, $102
FCC, $142
Economic regulation, $373 Int'l trade, $7.8 Majors, untab, $15
Environment, $353 Tax compliance, $300
DOT, $64 Health, $185 DOL, $122
DHS, $55 Regulatory costs of $1.8 trillion per year
Now more than half as large as all federal spending of $3.54 trillion 11.6% of GDP of $15.5 trillion $14,768 per household or 23% of average household income Increased rapidly in first Obama term Lots of new major regs in pipeline “Affordable” Care Act
Raises health insurance costs for many people and for most small businesses Discourages small businesses from hiring new employees 159 new regulations, programs, and offices Tax increases 2013-22 now estimated at $1.7 trillion What can be done about Obamacare?
The House of Representatives can vote to de-fund key parts of it States can resist implementing it (But Governor Martinez signed a bill last week creating a state health insurance exchange) Constitutional challenges continue Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010
Over 400 new rules and regulations 224 rules have been written totalling 7365 pages But it does not solve Too Big To Fail In fact, it gives big Wall Street banks an advantage over smaller banks What can be done about Dodd-Frank?
CEI, State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, 60 Plus Association, and the AGs of Oklahoma, South Carolina and Michigan have filed a constitutional challenge in federal court AGs from Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas and West Virginia asked to join the suit in February Energy and environmental regulations
When cap-and-trade was defeated in the Democratic Senate in 2010 and Republicans took just one way of skinning the cat.” control of the House in the 2010 election, President Obama said, “Cap-and-trade was And so we have two energy paths
The energy-rationing path The affordable energy path 1. Raise energy prices with 1. Undo the regulatory new EPA and other onslaught regulations
2. Limit access to energy, 2. Drill, baby, drill particularly on federal lands and OCS 3. Mandate and subsidize more expensive forms 3. Drive the crony capitalists of energy (e. g., wind, out of town solar, ethanol) The choice before us: (President Reagan chopped wood for fun and exercise. The woman in Africa chops wood to cook her families’ meals.) The perennial promise of renewable energy 2011 survey by House committee: EPA regulations hurt business most EPA regulations
Global warming rules to reduce Other EPA regs to raise energy greenhouse gas emissions prices CAFÉ Standards: 34.5 mpg by NAAQS for PM 2.5 2016; 54.5 mpg by 2025 Utility MACT Rule NSPS for new power plants Regional Haze Rule NSPS for existing power Cross-State Air Pollution Rule plants Ozone (Smog) Rule NSPS for refineries Tier 3 Rule for sulfur in More to come gasoline Clean Water Act rules Ethanol mandate Federal land management overlays for climate change
National Forest and BLM District 10-year management plans now include managing for climate change NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Environmental Impact Assessments for new projects must include climate change March 2013, Department of Interior released National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy 22 Landscape Conservation Cooperatives assisted by 8 Climate Science Centers Limiting access to energy and other natural resources: the federal land agencies Will guide all federal land management planning Intended to apply to state and county land management planning Explicitly tied to Land Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) Landscape Conservation Cooperatives OHN A. RICE, PH. D. Science Coordinator Bureau of Reclamation Salt Lake City, UT (801) 524-3685
KEVIN JOHNSON Coordinator Fish Wildlife Service Lakewood, CO (303) 236-4404 South Central Climate Science Center
Dr. Kim Winton Director, South Central Climate Science Center U.S. Geological Survey The South Central Climate [email protected] Dr. Berrien Moore III Science Center (SC CSC) Principal Investigator, South Central Climate Science Center Dean, College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, The is part of a network of eight University of Oklahoma [email protected] CSCs created to provide Dr. Renee A. McPherson Director of Research, South Central Climate Science Center scientific information, tools, Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Sustainability and techniques that The University of Oklahoma [email protected] managers and other parties interested in land, Hosts & Research Partners/Host Institution and Consortium University of Oklahoma water, wildlife and cultural Texas Tech University Louisiana State University resources can use to The Chickasaw Nation anticipate, monitor, and The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Oklahoma State University adapt to climate change. NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory What can we do about the energy/environment regulatory onslaught?
First, we must realize that global warming alarmism is not based on science No global warming for 16 years Temperature Data vs. Climate Models The impacts of potential global warming are exaggerated or made up
Sea level rise: 8 inches in 20th century; IPCC estimates 14 inches in 21st Arctic sea ice is melting; polar bears are threatened Wacky weather Affordable Energy Congressional Vote Ratings 112th Congress, 2011-12
New Mexico Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) 8% Tom Udall (D-NM) 8%
New Mexico Representatives Martin Heinrich(D-NM-1) 0% Steve Pearce (R-NM-2) 100% Ben Lujan (D-NM-3) 0% Resources