Trump rails against regulations in economic plan

OREANDA-NEWS. August 09, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is providing new details on a regulatory reduction plan he says would "unleash an energy revolution" and encourage companies to keep jobs in the US.

Trump during a major economic speech today in Detroit, Michigan, said he would improve the economy in part by a push to "cut regulations massively." His plan would place a moratorium on new regulations and require every federal agency to eliminate regulations that are not necessary, do not improve public safety or that "needlessly kill many, many jobs."

The plan mirrors the anti-regulation policies that Republicans and conservative think tanks have pushed for years. US House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) released a reform agenda earlier this year that would impose a regulatory "budget" on the government, repeal existing regulations and make it easier for the US Congress to block costly rules.

"It is time to remove the anchor dragging us down," Trump said in his remarks on federal regulations. "We are in competition with the world, and I want America to win."

Trump today said President Barack Obama's administration had blocked millions of jobs by issuing "anti-energy regulations." He said the administration waged a "war on coal" that has made coal-fired power plants uncompetitive and cost Michigan more than 50,000 jobs. The campaign did immediately provide a source for those figures, but independent economic studies typically find regulations have a far smaller effect on employment.

Low natural gas prices have undercut coal's once dominant position in electricity markets.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has promised to defend Obama's environmental regulations and to require oil and gas producers to cut methane leaks and better protect groundwater. Trump said these energy policies could curb US economic output by as much as \\$2.5 trillion by 2030, citing a study from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"A Trump administration will end this war on the American worker and unleash an energy revolution that will bring vast new wealth to our country," Trump said.

Trump's economic agenda includes plans to cut the US corporate tax rate to 15pc, a third of its existing rate of 35pc. And he said that while isolation in trade is "not an option" for the US, he would not make trade deals that hurt workers.

Environmental groups and Democrats would heavily oppose any efforts to roll back regulations, which they say generate far more health, environmental and economic benefits than their costs. The White House Office of Management and Budget last year estimated that federal regulations between 2004 and 2014 produced annual benefits of \\$216-812bn, far outweighing annual costs of \\$57-85bn.

But oil and gas companies have supported Trump's push against new regulations. The energy advocacy group the American Energy Alliance's president Thomas Pyle said Trump's speech showed his commitment to "unleashing our country's energy potential by getting rid of unnecessary and burdensome regulations."