CEI Today: EPA stonewalling Issa, Dodd-Frank qualified mortgage rule, and diversity at Labor Dept

EPA STONEWALLING - MYRON EBELL

CEI.org: CEI Calls on EPA to Turn Over Bristol Bay Documents to Congress

 

The Competitive Enterprise Institute today called on the Environmental Protection Agency to stop stonewalling repeated requests over many months by the House of Representatives and turn over documents related to the agency’s Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, first asked the EPA for the documents in May 2012.  The EPA’s assessment of the potential impacts of the proposed Pebble Project copper, gold and molybdenum mine on the Bristol Bay area in southwest Alaska was completed before the proposed mine’s developers had applied for any of the necessary environmental permits.

  > Read the full news release at CEI.org

> Interview Myron Ebell

NEW QUALIFIED MORTGAGE RULE - JOHN BERLAU Openmarket.org: Qualified Mortgage Rule Is One Of Many Dodd-Frank Boots To Drop The first thing that should be said about today’s “qualified mortgage” rule is that it is just one of many new regulations the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will issue under Dodd-Frank. Believe it or not, the 2,500 pages of Dodd-Frank contains both a “qualified mortgage” rule and a “qualified residential mortgage” rule, the latter of which has yet to be issued. And the powerful and unaccountable CFPB — subject to a lawsuit by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the 60 Plus Association, and the State National Bank of Big Spring (Texas), a community bank — still has the incredibly broad power to ban a mortgage or any other financial product it deems “abusive.” > View the full commentary at Openmarket.org > Interview John Berlau

DIVERSITY AT LABOR DEPT - MATT PATTERSON Openmarket.org: How About Some Intellectual Diversity At The Labor Department? As the cabinet turns: Hilda Solis announced this week that she will soon be stepping down from her post as secretary of labor. Interestingly, the effectiveness of her tenure is not what has generated the most discussion in the hours immediately following Solis’ resignation announcement. Instead, talking heads and wagging pens are in a fit over what her absence may mean for the “diversity” of the Obama administration.> View the full commentary at Openmarket.org > Inteview Matt Patterson

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