The EPA's Ambitious Regulatory Agenda

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:30:00 GMT

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is engaged in a series of rule-making proceedings of extraordinary scope and ambition—going well beyond its efforts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. All major EPA decisions are contentious, but the current flurry of regulatory initiatives raises unusually serious issues of costs and benefits, feasibility, methodology, and agency discretion. This event will begin with a presentation on air-quality trends followed by panel presentations and discussions on current rule-making proceedings and underlying issues of science, economics, and risk assessment.

Agenda

8:15 a.m.

Registration and Breakfast

8:30

Introduction:
  • CHRISTOPHER DEMUTH, AEI

8:40

Presentation: Trends in Air Quality—1970, Today, and Tomorrow
  • STEVEN F. HAYWARD, AEI

9:00

Panel I: EPA’s Rule-Making Surge

Panelists:
  • PAUL R. NOE, American Forest & Paper Association “The Challenge of Boiler MACT and the Cumulative Air Regulatory Burden”
  • ARTHUR FRAAS, Resources for the Future “Banking on Permits: A Risky Business”
  • JEFFREY R. HOLMSTEAD, Bracewell & Giuliani “The Clean Air Act and the Rule of Law”

Moderator: *KENNETH P. GREEN, AEI

10:30

Break

10:40

Panel II: Science and Economics in EPA Rule-Making

Panelists:
  • RICHARD A. BECKER, American Chemistry Council “The Blurred Lines between Science and Policy”
  • RICHARD B. BELZER, Regulatory Checkbook and Neutral Source “Empirical Analysis of EPA Compliance with the Information Quality Act”
  • JANE LUXTON, Pepper Hamilton LLP “Polarization on Science Issues in EPA Risk Assessment”
  • BRIAN F. MANNIX, Buckland Mill Associates “Whose Telescope is Defective? The Role of Discount-Rate Arbitrage in Energy and Climate Policy”
Moderator:
  • SUSAN E. DUDLEY, The George Washington University

Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036