If Donald Trump did win the presidency, as an outsider he would face huge challenges in pursuing a coherent policy agenda

While Donald Trump leads the current Republican primary field, most commentators believe that his likelihood of ascending to the presidency next January is fairly slim. But what if Trump did win? Would he be able to govern effectively? Michael A. Livermore argues that without his party’s backing, a President Trump would have enormous problems managing the executive branch. He writes that without a large and competent group of loyal party personnel to manage the executive bureaucracy, a Trump administration would be faced with one policy disaster after another

Patience is an Economic Virtue: Real Options, Natural Resources, and Offshore Oil

The financial concept of real options has important consequences in areas of environmental and natural resources law where irreversible decisions are made in the face of uncertainty. This article argues that consideration of real options is necessary to maximize economic returns from nonrenewable natural resource extraction, using offshore oil drilling as a case study. Because decisions over drilling are often framed as a now-or-never choice, the option to wait (or the real option value) is improperly treated in administrative processes that determine whether, when, and how offshore oil resources will be tapped. The value associated with the option to delay can be large, especially when there is a high degree of uncertainty about price, extraction costs, or the social costs imposed by drilling. The value of the information generated during a period of delay can outweigh the value of immediate extraction. Failure to consider option value leads to over-early exploitation of nonrenewable resources, and socially undesirable environmental damage. In the case of offshore drilling, the governing statute requires the Department of Interior, the - administrative agency charged with overseeing the leasing of offshore lands, to consider the economic consequences of its choices, a charge it has implemented through detailed cost benefit analysis of its planning decisions and through a sophisticated bidding system for lease auctions. But because both the cost-benefit analysis and the bidding system fail to account for real option value, they are fundamentally incomplete, leaving leasing decisions open to litigation risks and failing to maximize the net benefits generated by this public resource

The Meaning of Green Growth

Although the term is still rarely used in the United States, in recent years “green growth” has become part of the lexicon of global environmental policy. Unfortunately, although it is frequently cited as a public policy goal, green growth has remained vague and ill-defined, leading to conflicting interpretations and confusion over the distinction between green growth and related concepts like sustainable development. This paper seeks to clarify the meaning of green growth as a distinct concept, defining a “green growth frontier” of policies that dominate along both environmental and economic dimensions. The green growth agenda can be understood as moving societies toward that frontier of cost-effective and environmentally effective policies. Because movements toward this frontier generate gains along multiple dimensions, they should be less controversial and may allow for some progress toward economic and environmental goals even in contexts where broader political consensus over environmental policies is difficult to form

The Meaning of Green Growth

Although the term is still rarely used in the United States, in recent years “green growth” has become part of the lexicon of global environmental policy. Unfortunately, although it is frequently cited as a public policy goal, green growth has remained vague and ill-defined, leading to conflicting interpretations and confusion over the distinction between green growth and related concepts like sustainable development. This paper seeks to clarify the meaning of green growth as a distinct concept, defining a “green growth frontier” of policies that dominate along both environmental and economic dimensions. The green growth agenda can be understood as moving societies toward that frontier of cost-effective and environmentally effective policies. Because movements toward this frontier generate gains along multiple dimensions, they should be less controversial and may allow for some progress toward economic and environmental goals even in contexts where broader political consensus over environmental policies is difficult to form

Cost-Benefit Analysis and Agency Independence

The presidential mandate that agency rule makings be subjected to cost-benefit analysis and regulatory review is one of the most controversial developments in administrative law over the past several decades. There is a prevailing view that the role of cost-benefit analysis in the executive branch is to help facilitate control of agencies by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This Article challenges that view, arguing that cost-benefit analysis in fact helps preserve agency autonomy in the face of oversight. This effect stems from the constraints imposed on reviewers by the regularization of cost-benefit-analysis methodology and the fact that agencies have played a major role in shaping that methodology. The autonomy-preserving effect of cost-benefit analysis has been largely ignored in debates over the institution of regulatory review. Ultimately, cost-benefit analysis has ambiguous effects on agency independence, simultaneously preserving, informing, and constraining agency power

Cost-Benefit Analysis and Agency Independence

The presidential mandate that agency rule makings be subjected to cost-benefit analysis and regulatory review is one of the most controversial developments in administrative law over the past several decades. There is a prevailing view that the role of cost-benefit analysis in the executive branch is to help facilitate control of agencies by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This Article challenges that view, arguing that cost-benefit analysis in fact helps preserve agency autonomy in the face of oversight. This effect stems from the constraints imposed on reviewers by the regularization of cost-benefit-analysis methodology and the fact that agencies have played a major role in shaping that methodology. The autonomy-preserving effect of cost-benefit analysis has been largely ignored in debates over the institution of regulatory review. Ultimately, cost-benefit analysis has ambiguous effects on agency independence, simultaneously preserving, informing, and constraining agency power