Smart Regulation

Today, manufacturers worldwide are required to comply with a massive amount of data collection, reporting and other regulatory requirements. In many cases, regulations are vital and have contributed significantly to making our workplaces safer, and our environment cleaner. However, increasingly, unnecessarily burdensome regulations are imposing massive costs on industry with little or no public benefit. Where this is the case, the cost of compliance can be a major hindrance to the expansion of manufacturing and hiring. In these instances, manufacturing and productivity suffers, and the result is too often felt most by the worker.

Dow believes that done right, well-conceived and effectively implemented regulations are important tools for protecting workplaces, and the well-being of people and environment. They also ensure that industry retains the capacity to operate and innovate, and thereby bolster global economies and workforces.

We seek a proper balance that maximizes the effectiveness of both regulation and innovation. We advocate for smarter regulations that provide more flexibility for operations and reduce the burden of compliance, while achieving their statutory objectives.

Dow’s Policy Position

Dow believes that any smart regulation agenda must:

Include a cost-benefit analysis for all major rules.
Continuously enhance retrospective review.
Harmonize and simplify rules, especially where there is overlap in jurisdiction.
Enact performance standard regulations rather than prescriptive, rigid requirements.
Allow for broader stakeholder input.
Streamline permitting processes (accelerate permitting decisions and extend permit durations).
Implement fair enforcement focused on statutory requirements.
Benchmark any new requirements against comparable countries’ equivalent regulations.

Last revised December 2022

Smart Regulation Policy