The Regulatory Review We Need

The White House’s call to conduct a regulatory review which focuses only on obsolete and old regulations is hardly worth it; the immediate threat to American jobs are not just old and obsolete regulations which were implemented ten, twenty or thirty years ago, but the near-1000 new rules that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued during the past few months.  The Wall Street Journal  notes:

The EPA’s rules curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases cited as an impediment to growth by at least 30 organizations writing to [House oversight chairman Darrell] Issa, including representatives of agriculture, business, chemicals, energy, paper, manufacturing, and steel and iron sectors.

The EPA itself has admitted that some of the carbon regulations that it approved in 2010 will likely amount to increased cost for automobile production (and, by extension, purchase) as well as increasing food prices (since food which would otherwise be consumed by individuals will now be earmarked for inefficient “biofuels”). Regulations like these–which accept long-term economic costs for short-term political benefits–are not outdated, because they never should have been implemented to begin with.

It is unfortunate that review of a new list of regulations is necessary; however, there is no better time to dispose of regulations than before they have done significant damage. Past statism is not the problem; it is present statism which conservatives must address.