TALES OF OUR TIMES
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water
Pandemic Underscores Value Of Regulatory Engineering
The harsh steps being taken to fight the coronavirus crisis will have effects, bad and good, beyond their stated purpose. Now is the time to spot likely chances for good changes.
An idea waiting for its chance is the use of smart tools to do regulatory tasks better, faster, and cheaper. Think of it as regulatory engineering. “Smart tools” are digital devises that are widely used in many fields to measure, calculate, assess, record, and report what we need to know. These tools do nifty things on their own. Drones excel at sending back distant news and data from forest fires.
As shown in other fields, further use of smart tools in regulation could carry out needed tasks very well with fewer people at a site. The virus brought us a hardy reason to have fewer people at a site. Bingo. More efficient regulating with smart tools gets good marks for social distancing.
Besides being good at working alone, smart tools are good at cutting costs in many business tasks, such as checking product quality and remote scouting. Lower cost is why businesses of all kinds keep using more smart tools in their primary operations. You ask why, then, are there far fewer smart tools used in regulatory tasks. Democracy itself slows the changeover. Government “by the people” inherently calls for a maze of approvals.
Regulatory approvals begin with the approval of a broad law. Then agencies approve an internal draft of a specific regulation under the law. Then hearings are held on the drafts, involving a wide variety of interests, public and private. Little is said at hearings about better regulation for less cost. Then a board and/or a court often must approve the final version of a specific regulation. Then a company typically submits details of how it plans to meet the final regulation. Finally, an agency must approve a company’s detailed plan for compliance. This timeline is a swift account of a long hard slog.
Obviously, no one in this chain can simply ignore all this and just decide to do something better, no matter how much good the change would do for everyone. The operations of business and operations of regulation are both hard-won virtues. A thriving nation must be wise in both. The two endeavors use different processes. The real challenge is how to get the best from both at the same time.
Business keeps progressing by inventing and applying better tools. As a result, a steady stream of new tools comes to market. When crowds of consumers see that something new works better and costs less than an older product, sales climb. Eager purchasing by the people spurs more inventing, more applying, and hence more business.
For many years, business has kept on inventing and using smart tools to cut costs of business operations. These tools of efficiency are quick to their jobs in sectors as different as farming, factories, hospitals, firefighting, search and rescue, households, and even wristwatches to check health, to list a few. Meanwhile, regulation, with its tiers of participation, has been slow to make the same gains in its own tasks of inspecting, gauging, and reporting.
But new times lie ahead. Realities of the current crisis will step in and open new pathways. One certain change will speak to every interest: The budgets of state agencies and companies will be tight for some time to come. Governments and companies have spent money fast, while the monies coming in have been greatly reduced. Cost savings for both business and regulating will be doubly welcome.
Tighter budgets will push for cost cutting measures in regulation. Waiting to be used, our nation has a store of tools that have worked to cut costs, while performing better, in many situations.
Now is the time to shop in that store.