Tag Archives: EPA

John D. Graham

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Collection: Perspectives on Modern Regulatory Governance
Dates of interview: March 2, 2016 and April 21, 2016
Interviewer: Ashton Merck, Edward Balleisen (Jonathan Wiener – first interview only)
Interview length: Two sessions of approximately two hours each
Transcript: (PDF)
Location of interview: Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University, Durham, NC

Brief biography: John D. Graham was the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) from 2001-2006. Graham holds an M.A. in Public Affairs from Duke University and a B.A. from Wake Forest University, and received his Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs from Carnegie Mellon University. Graham is a leading scholar in the field of risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis, authoring or co-authoring 10 books and over 200 articles. Graham founded the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in 1989 and directed it until he left for OIRA in 2001. After leaving OIRA, Graham became an academic administrator; Graham is currently the Dean of the School for Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

Brief summary: The first interview provides an overview of Graham’s early life and professional trajectory as an academic, concluding with his nomination for the position of OIRA Administrator, and describing the experience of the Senate confirmation process. The second interview discusses Graham’s tenure as OIRA administrator, including several significant changes to OIRA’s policies and practices, as well as the substance of several key regulations that were subjected to OIRA review during Graham’s term in office. The interview includes a discussion of Graham’s career since completing his service in government, and some reflections on the past and future of regulatory review.

Time range of discussion: 1978-2015

Agencies mentioned:
Office of Management and Budget
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Council on Competitiveness
Council on Wage and Price Stability
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Environmental Protection Agency
National Transportation and Highway Safety Administration
Office of Science and Technology Policy

Institutions mentioned:
Brookings Institution
Center for Science and the Public Interest
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Harvard Center for Risk Analysis
Harvard School of Public Health
ILSI International Life Sciences Institute
Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Mercatus Center
National Academy of Sciences
National Science Foundation
Office of Economic Cooperation and Development
Pardee RAND School
Resources for the Future
Union of Concerned Scientists

Firms mentioned:
BASF/Bayer, Cummins Engine, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Rohm and Haas, Shell

Legislation, rules, and judicial rulings mentioned:
Circular A-4
Information Quality Act
REACH (EU)
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO v. American Petroleum Institute, et al. 448 U.S. 607 (1980) (the “benzene decision”)
Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States, Inc., et al. v. State Farm Automobile Insurance Company et al., 463 U.S. 29 (1983)

Locations mentioned:
Carnegie Mellon University
Duke University
Harvard University
Washington, D.C.

Regulatory concepts discussed:
cost-benefit analysis
impact assessment
prompt letter
return letter
risk assessment

People mentioned:
Nancy Beck
Eula Bingham
James Blumstein
Joshua Bolten
Stephen Breyer
James S. Coleman
Susan Collins
Robert W. Crandall
Mitch Daniels
Tom Daschle
Bob Dole
Dick Durbin
Christopher Edley, Jr.
John Evans
Harvey Fineberg
Arthur Finkelstein
Steven Garber
Newt Gingrich
Wendy Gramm
Laura Green
Thomas Grumbly
Patricia Gwaltney (McGinnis)
Jim Hammond
Dennis Hastert
Jeff Holmstead
Al Hubbard
Bennett Johnston
Sally Katzen
Lester Lave
Carl Levin
Joseph Lieberman
Charles Lindblom
Trent Lott
Granger Morgan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Paul Noe
Howard Raiffa
William Reilly
William Ruckelshaus
Eileen Serene
Olympia Snowe
Cass Sunstein
Kimberly Thompson
Fred Thompson
James Vaupel
Arnold Weber
Milt Weinstein
Christie Todd Whitman
Jonathan Wiener

Selected bibliography for additional background:

  • Graham, John D., and James W. Vaupel. “The Value of a Life: What Difference Does It Make?” In Risk/Benefit Analysis in Water Resources Planning and Management, 233–43. Springer US, 1981.
  • Graham, John D., and Patricia Gorham. “NHTSA and Passive Restraints: A Case of Arbitrary and Capricious Deregulation.” Administrative Law Review, 1983, 193–252.
  • Tengs, Tammy O., Miriam E. Adams, Joseph S. Pliskin, Dana Gelb Safran, Joanna E. Siegel, Milton C. Weinstein, and John D. Graham. “Five-Hundred Life-Saving Interventions and Their Cost-Effectiveness.” Risk Analysis 15, no. 3 (1995): 369–90.
  • Graham, John D. “The Perils of the Precautionary Principle: Lessons from the American and European Experience.” Vol. 818. Heritage Foundation, 2004.
  • Graham, John D., Paul R. Noe, and Elizabeth L. Branch. “Managing the Regulatory State: The Experience of the Bush Administration.” Fordham Urban Law Journal 33 (2005): 953.
  • Bagley, Nicholas, and Richard L. Revesz. “Centralized Oversight of the Regulatory State.” Columbia Law Review 106, no. 6 (2006): 1260–1329.
  • Graham, John D. “Saving Lives through Administrative Law and Economics.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 2008, 395–540.
  • Wiener, Jonathan Baert, and John D. Graham. Risk vs. Risk: Tradeoffs in Protecting Health and the Environment. Harvard University Press, 2009.

Select newspaper articles

  • Stephen Power, Jacob M. “Redrawing the Lines: Bush’s Rules Czar Brings Long Knife to New Regulations — `Smart’ Style Helps to Disarm Critics while Developing Business-Friendly Agenda — Outdoing EPA on Emissions.” Wall Street Journal, Jun 12, 2002, Eastern edition.
  • Cindy Skrzycki, “Nominee’s Business Ties Criticized,” The Washington Post, May 15, 2001, E01.
  • “Graham’s Cracker.” Wall Street Journal, Jun 27, 2001, Eastern edition.
  • Ellen Nakashima, “Influence of Industry on Rules Agency Questioned,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2002, A27.
  • Ellen Nakashima, “For Bush’s Regulatory ‘Czar,’ The Equation Is Persuasion; Graham Wields Cost-Benefit Analysis For, Against Rules,” The Washington Post, May 10, 2002, 35.
  • ———. “Regulations Face Stiffer Review in Win for Bush Business Allies.” Wall Street Journal, Aug 29, 2003, Eastern edition.
  • Judith Weinraub, “The Hidden Fat; Some scientists have known about the dangers of trans fats for more than two decades. What took the government so long?” The Washington Post, September 10, 2003, F01.
  • McKinnon, John D. “How U.S. Rules are made is Still a Murky Process.” Wall Street Journal, Oct 22, 2003, Eastern edition.
  • Alex Fryer, “Bush administration’s gatekeeper weighs costs, benefits of new regulations.” Seattle Times, September 29, 2004.
  • Cindy Skrzycki, “Report Sheds Light on Changing Role of Regulation,” The Washington Post, January 25, 2005, E01.
  • Rick Weiss, “’Data Quality’ Law Is Nemesis Of Regulation,” The Washington Post, August 16, 2004, A1.
  • Cindy Skrzycki, “Looking Back on the Presidents’ Policy Wonks,” The Washington Post, November 1, 2005, D01.

Jimmy Carter Library

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The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum website hosts an inventory of oral histories created by multiple research projects, and housed in several repositories, pertaining to the Carter Administration and Carter’s post-presidential diplomatic and humanitarian career. Selected interviews have transcripts available online.  The Carter Library’s full inventory of oral histories is available at their website.

A sampling of transcribed interviews identified materials from the Carter Library’s “Exit Interview Project” and the University of Virginia’s Miller Center “Carter Project” (also cataloged at the Carter library) containing significant content of interest to scholars of regulation. These interviews are especially useful for those interested in deregulation and in consumer protection.

National Archives personnel conducted exit interviews with Carter Administration staffers at all levels as they completed their terms in office. The bulk of these interviews occurred during and immediately following the transition between the Carter and Regan administrations. They focus primarily on administrative and legislative process, although they do offer some assessments of the administration’s overall accomplishments. The Miller Center’s interviews took place in the 1980s, and interviewees were high-ranking officials rather than lower-level staffers. These interviews focus on assessments of the administration’s work as well as economic and ideological approaches to regulatory policy.

Interviews pertaining to deregulation cover legislative and administrative processes during the Carter Administration as well as the political and ideological impetus behind the deregulation movement that characterized Carter’s legislative agenda. Topics include the deregulation of the trucking and airline industries.  Interviews, especially those from the Exit Interview collection, place heavy emphasis on the actions of the White House’s Office of Domestic Policy in achieving deregulatory goals. The details surrounding the passage of legislation deregulating the trucking and airline industries receive particular attention.

The Cater years also saw the defeat of a bill that would have created a cabinet-level consumer protection agency within the federal government. Interviews with officials associated with the Office of Consumer Affairs detail the failed attempt to pass the Consumer Protection Act, including negotiations with Congress, the degree to which the Carter Administration supported the bill. Also of interest are interviews that detail the administrative efforts of the Office of Consumer Affairs staff to increase the office’s standing to weigh in on behalf of consumers in the regulatory policy development of other agencies.

Other topics, which received less coverage, include the accident at Three Mile Island, the EPA, FDA, and OSHA.

Suggested Keywords:  Deregulation; Domestic Policy Office; ICC; FCC; Consumer Protection Act; Office of Consumer Affairs; Three Mile Island; NRC; EPA; Clean Air Act; Federal Energy Administration; OSHA

Summary by:  Elizabeth Brake

North Carolina Business History Project

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Project description: These interviews are with leaders of traditional and emergent North Carolina industries, such as furniture, banking, tobacco products, textiles, poultry, food and food services, tourism, pharmaceuticals, computers, and steel. Interviewees describe the origins and evolution of their companies as well as the changes and problems they confront. They are also asked about the impact of businesses on the communities in which they operate and about the regional, national, and global developments that will affect their future prospects. [Description from the finding aid]

Regulatory significance: Many interviewees discuss government regulation of their businesses, often in a negative context and as an additional reason for competitive problems during the 1970s and 1980s.

Repository: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

Interview dates: 1995 – 1997

Digital access: Transcripts for many of these interviews are available online.

Physical access: For access to all audio and archived material, visit the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC.

Link: North Carolina Business History Project

Nevada Test Site Oral History Project

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Project description: This program consists of 150 interviews that document the history of the Nevada Test Site during the Cold War. Interviewees include: national laboratory scientists and engineers; support staff; inspectors; AEC/NRC officials; US Department of Energy officials, US Public Health Service officials; and EPA officials.

Regulatory significance: A brief examination of these interviews suggest that some interviews cover environmental and nuclear safety rules and regulations, from lab to federal levels. They possibly cover land use regulation, and jurisdictional questions regarding tribal lands. This is a robust collection, and a broader survey is required to take full stock of its regulatory richness.

Repository: University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Interview dates: 2003 – 2008

Digital access: Full transcripts available online; limited audio and video clips available online.

Link: http://digital.library.unlv.edu/ntsohp/

Environmental Activism in Los Angeles

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Project description: This collection consists of 19 interviews conducted from the 1970s to the present documenting environmental activism in the Los Angeles area.  Most interviewees were founders or “major participants” in important regional environmental organizations.

Regulatory significance: Interviews touch on both local and federal regulations and provide insight into the development and activities of local environmental groups and national advocacy organizations with substantial presence in the LA area (especially the American Lung Association). These groups’ efforts to influence regulatory policy and participate in negotiated rule making processes are key to several interviews in the project.

Repository: University of California – Los Angeles

Interview dates: 2006 – 2009

Digital access: Transcripts and audio for these interviews are available online.

Physical access: For access to all transcripts and audio, visit UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections.

Link: http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0008zh0f&title=Oral%20History%20Collection

EPA History Program

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Collection description: According to EPA Order 1000.27 the “EPA History Program” dated March 1992, the EPA must conduct an Oral History Program. Michael H. Gorn and Dennis Williams served as the first historians of the EPA, and conducted the five oral history interviews with administrators and a deputy administrator.

Regulatory significance: Though few in number, the interviews provide rich details on the early history of the EPA and its structural dynamics. Many interviews include comments on the EPA’s relationship with the White House, Congress, OMB, regulated industries, public interest groups, and state and local government. They also include insightful discussions of regulatory conflicts over pesticides, industry emissions, crises like Love Canal, and scientific determinations.

Dates: 1992 – 1995

Digital access: Only interviews with five former agency heads are available online, with William Ruckelshaus, Russell Train, Alvin Alm, William K. Reilly, and Douglas M. Costle.

Forest History Society Oral History Collection

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Repository description: The Forest History Society’s oral history collection includes over 250 interviews with individuals involved in forest management and timber industries. Interviews were first recorded in the 1940s and the project is on-going.

Regulatory significance: At least 16 of these interviews directly address topics of forestry regulation and the impact of other environmental regulations on the practice of forest management by the Forest Service. The impact of the 1911 Mills Act and the 1960 Multiple-Use Forestry Act receives particular attention in multiple interviews. Other topics include public regulation of privately owned forests, uses of public land and timber, and the effects of the Clean Air Act, the clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species act on the activities of the Forest Service. Also of interest is the process through which interest groups, such as the Sierra Club and Chambers of Commerce participate in the policy making process.

Location: Durham, North Carolina

Dates: 1940s – Present

Digital access: Some transcripts available online, some only summarized, and interview compilations available for purchase

URL:  http://foresthistory.org/Research/ohiguide.html