The Trump Administration has moved rapidly to weaken or repeal significant regulations that protect human health and the environment, improve energy efficiency for consumer products, and limit emissions of climate-warming pollution. The administration frequently presents its deregulatory actions as an effort to boost the U.S. economy, proclaiming that its efforts will “roll back trillions in regulatory costs.” Such one-sided, misleading analysis ignores a critical component of the targeted regulations: their benefits to Americans. The regulations now facing rollbacks serve a valuable societal purpose. The actions of private firms create side effects—or “negative externalities”—that harm society, like the health impacts of air pollution. Regulations are designed so corporations internalize these side effects—meaning that corporations, rather than the public, pay their fair share to avoid the negative side effects of their activities. Regulatory rollbacks force those costs back onto the public.
While many of the rules targeted for roll back of course entail some compliance costs, they also create corresponding—and, typically, much greater—benefits, resulting in significant net economic benefits for society. By rolling back rules with net economic benefits, the Trump Administration is taking away billions in benefits from the American public. These lost benefits come in the form of lost consumer savings; more premature mortalities, hospital admissions, and asthma cases; worse air pollution; and higher greenhouse gas emissions. In many cases, the costs avoided through deregulation accrue mostly to a small number of regulated firms, while the lost benefits affect millions of Americans.