Environmental Regulation and Regulatory Reform

Regulatory relief asks the wrong question when it asks whether a regulation's benefits justify its costs. True regulatory reform asks how to make regulation fair, reasonable, and effective-that is, both efficient in spending social resources and successful in achieving compliance. Instead of simply devising new procedural burdens to impede the regulator, we ought to focus our regulatory reform efforts on finding effective ways to regulate by stimulating and rewarding industry's efficient compliance with regulation.