Professor Buzbee Interviewed for Regulatory Expertise
Professor William Buzbee
William W. Buzbee, Professor of Law and Director of the Emory Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, was quoted in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) editorial regarding President Bush's recent significant amendments to an executive order that influences rulemaking by all federal agencies. Buzbee's expertise was sought for the editorial because he has written about regulation and regulatory design issues and has testified before the U.S. Senate on environmental regulatory issues. Buzbee also is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform, a thinktank of professors who are experts on risk and environmental health regulations.
On January 18, President Bush issued an amended executive order that imposes new restrictions on regulatory agencies, constraining them from issuing or even starting on new rulemaking without approval from an agency head or from a designated political appointee, while also requiring an array of findings about the necessity of the regulation and its relative costs and benefits. AJC Editor David McNaughton sought out Buzbee as a sounding board to discuss the implications of the amended executive order.
"This executive order gives the president and his appointees greater power to modify agencies' regulatory choices, adding greater focus on cost versus other issues, like environmental and health risks," said Buzbee. “It also adds an array of analytical hurdles that will slow the movement of any proposed new regulation.”
According to Buzbee, the directive is an example of a classic separation of powers battle, with President Bush pushing the implementation of laws in a direction more sensitive to markets and industry preferences even though he and his allies are unable to change the original laws passed by Congress. Fewer regulations are likely to be issued, and those that are issued will have been subjected to greater scrutiny of their cost effectiveness.
This topic also was covered in a feature article and editorial in The New York Times and will be the subject of Senate hearings this month.
Read the full article here.
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