Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 09:16:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Competitive Enterprise Institute To: CEI-Recepients@access.digex.net Subject: CEI-List: Dirty Dozen I & II CEI's "DIRTY DOZEN" Soft Targets for Elimination One of the top priorities for the incoming Republican Congressional majorities should be to pare back the size and scope of the federal government. This is important both to reduce the size of the federal budget, but also to loosen the chokehold that Washington bureaucracies have on America's productive classes.=20 There are plenty of large targets that Congressional Republicans should be focused on -- dismantling the departments of Transportion, Energy, and "Housing and Urban Destruction." Yet it is also important to focus on smaller targets that are emblematic of inside-the-beltway waste and regulatory insanity. A first set of suggestions were collected in a booklet "CEI's Dirty Dozen: Soft Targets for Elimination at Energy, Interior, and EPA." Future "kill" suggestions will follow in the coming weeks.=20 CEI's first hit-list consisted of the following:=20 =A9 Defund Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research - The federal government currently spends approximately $1.3 billion on research on energy efficiency technologies and renewable energy sources. Private industry is fully capable of investing in these technologies if they are truly "efficient" and therefore sound economic investments.=20 =A9 Eliminate the Clean Car Initiative - This program, formally known as=20 the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, is a $300 million=20 subsidy to American automakers to assist in the development of=20 "environmentally-sound" vehicles. It is corporate welfare, plain and=20 simple.=20 =A9 Eliminate the Ethanol Preference for Reformulated Gasoline - The 1990= =20 Clean Air Act Amendments require the use of reformulated gasoline in the=20 nation's smoggiest cities in order to reduce automobile emissions. This=20 costly program has been made even more so by a give-away to the ethanol=20 industry that guarantees ethanol a 30 percent share of the oxygenate=20 requirement for reformulated gasoline. This regulation is more about=20 catering to special interests than cleaning the air.=20 =A9 Eliminate Funding of the Global Environment Facility - Congress has=20 authorized giving $90 million to the Global Environment Facility, an=20 international environmental bureaucracy that oversees implementation of=20 treaties drafted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The GEF has already=20 mispent much of the money it has already received, and does not deserve=20 another cent.=20 =A9 Eliminate the National Biological Survey - This Interior Department=20 agency is charged with identifying and cataloging the nation's biological= =20 diversity in order to provide a "road map," as it were, for additional=20 land-use restrictions under the Endnagered Species Act. The last thing=20 property owners need is to have $167 million of their tax dollars spent=20 on such a project.=20 =A9 Eliminate the Radon Action Program - The EPA is running an alarmist campaign on the purported threats of radon gas to homeowners. The EPA wastes $5 million on this program. If the EPA's testing and remediation guidelines were followed, it would cost American homeowners $45 billion, for no conceivable health benefit.=20 =A9 Halt the Disinfectant By-Product Rulemaking - The EPA is currently=20 proposing to regulate disinfectant by-products in drinking water. This=20 proposal, aimed at controlling those substances created in water when=20 disinfected by chlorine, represents a multi-billion dollar unfunded=20 mandate that has no valid scientific basis. Indeed, their is a greater=20 risk to public health from possible reductions in drinking water=20 disinfection as a result of this rule than from the purported threat that= =20 the regulation is designed to address.=20 =A9 Repeal the Alaskan Oil Export Ban - It is currently illegal to export= =20 crude oil from the North Slope of Alaska. This retards domestic oil=20 exploration and development and restricts international trade. Repealing= =20 the ban would provide an economic burst in Alaska and California, and=20 provide the federal government with over $100 million in revenues.=20 =A9 Repeal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards - These fuel=20 efficiency standards imposed on automakers impose a deadly trade-off of=20 blood for oil. By forcing Americans into more efficient -- in other=20 words smaller, lighter, and inherently less safe -- cars, this law=20 increases highway fatalities by 3,000 per year, or more. =20 =A9 Repeal the Employee Commute Option - This regulation requires employers= =20 in the nation's smoggiest cities to wean their employees from their cars.= =20 At an annual price tag of $1.2 billion, this regulation will do far more=20 to aggravate commuters, and infringe upon individual liberties, than it=20 will to achieve its stated purpose, cleaning the air. =20 =A9 Repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act - Each year the federal government wastes over $2 million enforcing this obsolete law governing ownership of utilities. Even the agency that administers PUHCA has called for its repeal, and Congress should do the same.=20 =A9 Repeal the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act - This is an=20 unnecessary law designed to force utilities to invest in renewable energy= =20 sources, such as solar and wind power. It results in the inflation of=20 power generation and purchasing costs for utilities, and therefore=20 ratepayers, and is more worthy of repeal than ever.=20 --------------------------------- DIRTY DOZEN, PART DEUX Due to the overwhelming positive response to the release of "The Dirty Dozen: Soft Targets for Elimination at Energy, Interior & EPA," CEI is continuing to provide lawmakers and policy experts with programs to eliminate, offices to close, regulations to stop, and statutes to repeal.= =20 Given the current state of Washington, there is hardly a shortage of targets.=20 The CEI staff issued a new suggestion each week for the first 100=20 days of Congress. The suggestions follow: =A9 Abolish the Peanut Program - This USDA programcauses consumers to spend $500 million more per year on peanuts and peanut products in order to support roughly 6,000 farmers. To top it off, this nuty program subsidizes environmental damage by discouraging crop rotation. =A9 Defund the World Bank - The federal government forked over $1 billion to the World Bank in 1994 while the Bank did little to encourage development in poorer nations, its ostensible mission.=20 Habitually plagued by corruption and inefficiency, this moribund institution is even opposed by Ralph Nader. =A9 Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act - By imposing "prevailing wage" requirements on federal contracts, Davis-Bacon costs taxpayers over $2 billion annually. Private contractors that seek to comply with the law in order to get govenrment bids spend an additional $100 million on the paperwork. All the while Davis- Bacon restricts opportunity for unskilled workers and disrupts the labor market. =A9 End the Postal Monopoly - The U.S. Postal Service is grossly inefficient, yet federal law protects it from competition.=20 Forcing the USPS to compete might spur it to clean up its act or result in fully private delivery. Either way Americans would be better off. =A9 Abolish the Sugar Program - This USDA program costs American consumers $1.4 billion each year to benefit only 200 farms. One percent of American sugar farms hoard 40 percent of the programs "benefits." Moreover, the Sugar program is responsible for much of the environmental damage caused to Florida's Everglades. =A9 Repeal the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) - CRA forces the inefficient allocation of capital resources by requiring banks and thrifts to reinvest depositors' funds into the local community. CRA is considered the single most costly regulation facing the banking industry and exposes banks and thrifts to political pressures by restricting their ability to merge or expand. =A9 Eliminate the USDA Animal Damage Control Program - Each year the Department of Agriculture provides a $36 million subsidy to the ranching industry by paying for the killing and repelling of animals that prey on livestock, eat crops, and destroy property.=20 Controlling predation is a cost of doing business for ranchers and should be paid for by the industry, not the American taxpayer. =A9 End Export Subsidies - The federal government should not assist industry and agricultute to export goods and services abroad, yet it does -- to the tune of $2 billion per year.=20 Corporate welfare programs in this area that should be abolished include: the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Export Enhancement Program, the USDA Market Promotion Program and the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, among others. =A9 Eliminate the Bureau of Mines - This redundant and outdated federal agency spends over $150 million to address mining concerns that are already handled by other federal agencies or=D4 a classic example of the inability of the federal government to abolish any agency, no matter how obsolete. =A9 Eliminate Coal R&D Subsidies - The Department of Energy currently provides over one-half billion dollars in corporate welfare to the coal industry in the form of the Clean Coal program and other coal research and development projects. There is no reason for the federal government to pick up the research tab for private industry. =A9 Privatize the Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) - The five PMAs are one of the few remaining subsidized, socialist enterprise in the United States. Privatizing them, and forcing their customers to pay market rates for power, would generate $4.5 billion in revenue and save the taxpayer approximately $270 million per year. =A9 End Small Business Administration Loans - The inefficient and ineffective Small Business Administration should no longer be able to issue billions of dollars in federally-subsidized loans to entrepreneurs. Ending this program could save over $2.5 billion over the next five years. =A9 Abolish the Dairy Market Program - Federal milk price controls cost American consumers $800 million each year. On top of that, federal subsidies to milk producers cost taxpayers an additional $300 million. This program should be ended, as the market is as good for milk as any other product. Later this month, CEI's recommendations from the first one- hundred days will be published as CEI's Baker's Dozen: More Soft Targets for Elimination.=20 _______ __________ ___________ / | / | | | |__________ | | | | \ | | \ _______ |__________ ___________ COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE =09=09 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW #1250 =09=09=09 Washington, DC 20036 =09=09 202-331-1010, fax 202-331-0640 Permission to copy granted as long as these lines are left intact.=20 To subscribe to the cei list, send a message to CEI@digex.com. "The Virtual Hand: CEI's free-market guide to the information superhighway"= =20 is available for $5. CEI's monthly newsletter, "CEI UpDate," is free to contributors of $25.=20 =20