Five-Hundred Life-Saving Interventions and Their Misuse in the Debate over Regulatory Reform

The author argues that John D. Graham, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, holds strong anti-environmental biases and has perpetuated and encouraged a misrepresentation of his own research, which has largely influenced health, safety, and environmental regulation

The Failure of Agency-Forcing: The Regulation of Airborne Carcinogens Under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act

Professor Graham analyzes section 112 of the Clean Air Act, a provision intended by Congress to achieve ambitious regulatory ends by constraining agency discretion. The performance of the Environmental Protection Agency in implementing section 112 reveals flaws inherent in this agency-forcing approach to statutory design. In particular, section 112 directs the Agency to list formally those pollutants that it determines-without statutory guidance-to be hazardous. This directive, added to the requirement that the Agency promulgate within short dead-lines very stringent rules regulating listed pollutants, has led to a lack of result that is perceived as bureaucratic footdragging. This lack of result is, however, due to the statutory design itself, and especially to its denial to the Agency of authority to consider costs and benefits in writing regulations governing sources of listed pollutants. A package of reforms is proposed to bring needed flexibility to section 112

The Evolving Role of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in Regulatory Policy

Since the early Reagan years, critics have argued that benefit-cost analysis is used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a one-sided tool of deregulation to advance the interests of business. This article discloses a little-known fact: OMB also plays a powerful pro-regulation role when agency proposals address market failures and are supported by benefit-cost analysis. Drawing on four case studies from the George W. Bush Administration, the author examines how and why OMB encouraged regulatory initiatives while protecting some rulemakings from opposition by forces inside and outside of the executive branch. The case studies address the labeling of foods for trans fat content, control of diesel engine exhaust, improvement of light-truck fuel economy, and control of air pollution from coal-fired power plants. OMB's role in the 2001-2006 period was unusual by historic standards because, rather than await agency drafts, OMB played a pro-active role in both the initiation of rulemakings and the creation of regulatory alternatives for consideration. The benefit-cost framework could be much more powerful if greater investments were made in applied research to expand knowledge on key regulatory issues.

Book Reviews

Figures of Literary Discourse (Gérard Genette) (Reviewed by Gerald Price, University of Pennsylvania)The Narrative Act; Point of View in Prose Fiction (Susan Sniader) (Reviewed by James Phelan, Ohio State University)Five Frames for the Decameron: Communication and Social Systems in the Cornice (Joy Hambeuchen Potter) (Reviewed by Andrea di T ommaso, Wayne State University)Alexander Pope and the Traditions of Formal Verse Satire (Howard Weinbrot) (Reviewed by Wallace Jackson, Duke University)The Holy and the Daemonic from Sir Thomas Browne to William Blake (R. D. Stock) (Reviewed by Anya Taylor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York)D. H. Lawrence: History, Ideology and Fiction (Graham Holderness) (Reviewed by Joseph Gomez, Wayne State University)The Play of Faulkner\u27s Language (John T. Matthews) (Reviewed by Karl F. Zender, University of California, Davis)A Reader\u27s Guide to William Gaddis\u27s The Recognitions (Steven Moore) (Reviewed by John Kuehl, New York University

A Survey of Residual Cancer Risks Permitted by Health, Safety and Environmental Policy

The authors describe permitted U.S. residual cancer risks, focusing on numerical levels specifically and implicitly authorized by statute or regulation. They also discuss potential changes

The Safety Risks of Proposed Fuel Economy Legislation

Based on, e.g., a comprehensive assessment of what is known of factors influencing automobile safety, previous industry responses to requirements for fuel economy and prior success of regulators in reducing injuries, Professor Graham concludes that pending fuel economy bills are apt to add 1650 fatalities and 8500 serious accidents to the annual highway toll. He also presents several short-term and long-term strategies for simultaneously saving fuel and lives

Book Reviews

Imagination (Mary Warnock) (Reviewed by Lilian R. Furst, University of Texas at Dallas)Language Truth and Poetry: Notes towards a Philosophy of Literature (Graham Durstan Martin) (Reviewed by Michael McCanles, Marquette University)Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture (John G. Cawelti) (Reviewed by Albert D. Hutter, University of California, Los Angeles)George Crabble\u27s Poetry (Peter New) (Reviewed by R. L. Chamberlain, Grand Valley State College)The Romantic Sublime: Studies in the Structure and Psychology of Transcendence (Thomas Weiskel) (Reviewed by Daniel Hughes, Wayne State University)F. O. Matthiessen: The Critical Achievement (Giles Gunn) (Reviewed by Gary Simon, Dane, Wisconsin)Defoe\u27s Narratives: Situations and Structures (John J. Richetti) (Reviewed by Christopher W. Gay, University of Massachusetts--Boston)Forms of the Modern Novella (Mary Doyle Springer) (Reviewed by Khachig Tololyan, Wesleyan University)Occasional Form. Henry Fielding and the Chains of Circumstance (J. Paul Hunter) (Reviewed by C. J. Rawson, University of Warwick

Summary of Workshop to Review an OMB Report on Regulatory Risk Assessment and Management

Summary of the results of an invitational workshop conducted to peer review the 1990 OMB report, CURRENT REGULATORY ISSUES IN Risk ASSESSMENT AND Risk MANAGENMENTIN REGULATORY PROGRAM OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, APRIL 1, 1990 - MARCH 31, 1991