The U.S. Chamber of Commerce likes to claim that regulation stifles the economy and prevents businesses from creating jobs. But it seems like the president of the Chamber, Tom Donohue, jumped the gun in complaining about regulations after the BP oil catastrophe: no proposed regulatory fixes have taken serious shape. Donohue said, “I am not too much of an advocate of doing the surgery before the diagnosis.”
Yesterday, Obama announced some recommended steps he and his administration were planning to take in response to a review he ordered. Among them were the sensible steps of suspending planned drilling off the coast of Alaska, canceling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia, and suspending – for just six months – new deepwater drilling.
Considering the Obama administration’s deference to BP on many aspects of the effort to stop and clean up the spill, Donohue’s comments verge on non sequitur. At this point, the Obama administration appears to be at no risk of over-regulating.
The real question is whether efforts taken by the administration and Congress will
