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Showing 55 results

Thomas McGarity

CPR Member Scholar; Endowed Chair in Admin. Law

Thomas McGarity | June 15, 2015

What to Expect from the Supreme Court’s Clean Air Mercury Decision

In the shadow of the upcoming Supreme Court decisions on Obamacare and same-sex marriage is an important environmental case that has important implications for the health of women of childbearing age in America.  The Court will decide whether to uphold the Environmental Protection Agency’s stringent limitations for emissions of the toxic metal mercury from the […]

Thomas McGarity | May 26, 2015

Corporate Crime Is Not ‘Civil Disobedience’

Cross-posted with ACSBlog. The Wall Street Journal recently devoted nearly two pages of its Saturday Review section to an editorial by Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute urging American corporations to violate laws that they deem to be “pointless, stupid or tyrannical” as acts of civil disobedience.  The article, which is a capsule summary of his recently published […]

Thomas McGarity | April 17, 2015

Becoming an Environmentalist on the Neches River

Growing up in Port Neches, Texas, long before anyone ever heard of Earth Day, it was not hard to be an environmentalist.  When my father announced that the family would be moving to Port Neches, he tried to soften the blow to his 13-year-old son by stressing the fact that we would be living across […]

Thomas McGarity | February 12, 2014

CPR Member Scholars file Comments on OSHA’s Silica Proposal

At long last, the comment period on OSHA’s silica proposal has closed and the next phase in this rule’s protracted timeline will commence.  In the four months since OSHA released the proposal, the agency has received hundreds of comments.  They run the gamut, from the expected support of unions and other advocates for working people, […]

Thomas McGarity | November 14, 2013

FDA’s preventive controls rule: hollowed out by OIRA, and less costly than the agency suggests

From frozen meals and spices to nutbutters and cheeses, processed foods have been responsible for an alarming number of outbreaks in recent years. The FDA’s proposed rule on “preventive controls for human food” would require manufacturers, processors, and warehouses to design a written food safety plan tailored to each facility’s products and operations. (The rule would also apply to mixed-type facilities that conduct processing […]

Thomas McGarity | November 6, 2013

The human cost of regulatory ossification

Tomorrow, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D. Connecticut) hosts a Hearing on the consequences of excessive regulatory “ossification” entitled, “Justice Delayed II: The Impact of Nonrule Rulemaking on Auto Safety and Mental Health.”  I will be testifying at that hearing on the effects of agencies’ moving to more […]

Thomas McGarity | October 2, 2013

A Long History of Analysis and Intervention

The origins of Executive Order 12866 go all the way back to the Nixon and Ford Administrations.  Soon after the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Clean Air and Water Acts, affected industries began to complain bitterly about the burdens the new wave of public interest statutes imposed on them.  The […]

Thomas McGarity | August 23, 2013

OSHA Announces Proposed Silica Rule – Let’s Keep it Rolling

After more than two years of White House review, OSHA has finally published its proposed new standards for silica exposure. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, Assistant Secretary David Michaels, and many other people both inside and outside the agency deserve congratulations for finally shaking the proposal loose from the clutches of the president’s regulatory review team […]

Thomas McGarity | August 2, 2013

President Obama’s Executive Order on Chemical Facility Safety Is a Step in the Right Direction

Yesterday President Obama signed an executive order, entitled “Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security,” that is designed to get state, federal and local chemical safety agencies and first responders to improve coordination, information gathering, and regulation with respect to the risks posed by the many highly reactive chemical compounds that are stored and used throughout […]