It should also motivate us as we seek solutions on a whole range of issues that affect our ability to make our planet a safer, cleaner and more prosperous place to live. Let me describe just a few of those issues. Topping the list is regulation, which has a tremendous impact on our lives. But there's also a lot of room for improvement in today's regulation, which is often the costly and inefficient command and control approach. OMB has acknowledged that excessive or poorly designed regulations can cause confusion, delay and unreasonable compliance costs.
Some rules actually interfere with society's ability to meet important goals.
Yet despite all the attention devoted to this problem in recent years, change has been piecemeal. So far, Congress has yet to pass a comprehensive regulatory improvement bill. The key elements of improvement are well known. First, we need to ensure that public policy is based on sound science, which I would broadly define as a careful, systematic method of investigation characterized by high standards of accuracy, objectivity and peer review. Some of the threats that come along are real.