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Articles on regulatory capture

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A policy decision to allow the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway — a company with a poor safety record – to run its trains through a town in Québec with single person crews resulted the fourth deadliest railway disaster in Canadian history in 2013. Eight years later, Transport Canada is still suffering from safety issues. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

To prevent disasters like Lac-Mégantic, private interests cannot be allowed to affect regulations

Industries have blocked or delayed new regulations and pushed to remove or dilute existing regulations by framing regulations as detrimental to creating jobs and wealth.
An International Atomic Energy Agency investigator examines Reactor Unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, May 27, 2011. Greg Webb, IAEA/Flickr

10 years after Fukushima, safety is still nuclear power’s greatest challenge

On the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, two experts explain why human choices are more important to nuclear safety than technology, and why the job is far from finished.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto hold a news conference before signing the USMCA. The deal, if passed into law, poses dangers to public health. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The new NAFTA’s assault on public health

The collective public health of Canada, the United States and Mexico will take a hit if the new NAFTA becomes law.
ASIC boss James Shipton has signalled a shift to more vigorous enforcement and Treasurer Scott Morrison has bolstered the regulator’s funding to enable this. Luis Ascui/AAP

Embedding regulators in banks can help change cultures of wrongdoing, despite the risks

Putting regulators inside corporations isn’t new, and the US experience highlights risks of regulatory capture, but the move could make a difference if ASIC is shifting to more robust enforcement.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is an unabashed ally of the fossil fuels – industry his agency is supposed to regulate. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Trump administration’s zeal to peel back regulations is leading us to another era of robber barons

The Trump administration is committed to deregulating industry, as it’s done with the EPA Clean Power Plan. But a historian shows how regulations have actually benefited both industry and consumers.
Did the TPP die - or is it now a zombie? (Visual Hunt/Killaee)

Zombie Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement lurches on

NAFTA renegotiations may see provisions from the Trans-Pacific Partnership revive like zombies. We must remember their failures - on income inequality, labour and environmental protection.
The Volkswagen emissions scandal reveals a lot about corporate governance in different countries. AAP Image/EPA

What we can all learn from the VW emissions saga

The Volkswagen emissions scandal highlights the benefits of the German corporate governance system, as well as the worst of lobbying around the world.

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