Comment on Obama’s Ozone Decision Shows Clearly Who’s in Charge by There’s a hidden way politics shapes regulation. The Supreme Court should take note. - Gjok Paloka

Although President Obama issued his own statement, technically the decision to have the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdraw its draft final rule was announced by a “return letter” from the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Cass Sunstein, to the EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson. While the criticisms leveled against OIRA have been many, two of the most frequent and prominent concerns have focused, first, on what critics consider to be OIRA’s institutional obsession with cost-benefit analysis to the exclusion of public health concerns, and, second, on what they consider to be the illegitimacy of unelected and unaccountable OIRA staff overturning the work of presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed agency heads.