Regulatory Capture
A look at the sleazy playbook employed by Big Oil, Big Tech, and other industries.
We have seen a dismantling of regulatory agencies by the Trump regime and his cronies. Their strategies are nothing new. However, to those who voted for him, there will be a great deal of ‘buyer’s remorse.’ Once they realize how badly they’ve been screwed, the political pendulum is apt to swing wildly in the opposite direction. That is cold comfort for what is truly about to hit all of us. Russ Vought and Project 2025 present a horrific vision for the USA. Make no bones about it, it is a playbook that will destroy safety nets for the most vulnerable and produce new vulnerabilities.
In a newly published journal article from the American Chemical Society, a group of international scholars exposes how some industries influence policymakers into doing the bidding of oligarchs (Ford). It goes something like this: regulated industries bribe or use campaign donations to unduly weaken consumer protections or the environment. It is a new spin on an old dirty trick’s playbook. Ford and co-workers do recommendations (ibid).
The recommendations by Ford and his co-workers can be summed up in the following manner:
1. Enforce and implement laws that remove lobbyists’ access to government
2. Make corporate interests in governmental affairs transparent
3. Improve regulation of remaining lobbyists
4. Protect academic freedom by protecting the intellectual property of academia
5. All publication data from research is to be open to the public
6. Ensure corporations adhere to strict social and environmental rights
7. Educate the public on the capture-and-kill strategies of corporations
Whether these recommendations are implemented is to be seen. Since the electorate appears to swing from one political side to another, it may not be too far-fetched to believe we can overturn Trump and his cronies.
A Little History
The term ‘regulatory capture’ was defined by the scholar, Sidney Shapiro, in the Roger Williams University Law Review in 2012 regarding British Petroleum’s oil accident in 2010 (Shapiro). The Deepwater Horizon oil rig experienced an explosion that resulted in spilling more than 4.9 million barrels of crude oil off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The ecological impact of the DWH spill varies with the species of life. Corals and sponges of impacted areas near the spill will take centuries to recover. While the impact of the oil spill on other forms of life is documented to be less detrimental, it will take decades for the area to recover (Passow). How did government regulatory agencies respond to the spill?
The US government’s immediate response to the spill was to fine BP. However, if safeguards had not been removed, the accident might not have been as bad or might not have happened in the first place. That is where regulatory capture comes into play. The capture and kill playbook is an insidious way to ensure ‘we the people’ becomes ‘we the corporation.’
Part of the playbook includes the incorporation of anachronistic legislation to justify bending the rules—e.g. think of where Trump’s utilization of the 1807 Insurrection Act has come into play. Adding to the bending of rules is the seeming lack of political will many Democrats possess for his incursions, plus Trump’s executive orders to facilitate a straw man argument to justify these actions. The effect of performing these actions is to create a political vacuum that only he can fill. It is as sleazy as one can imagine.
“If the government is to tell big businessmen how to run their business, then don’t you see that big businessmen have to get closer to government even than they are now? Don’t you see that they must capture the government, in order not be restrained too much by it?” — President Woodrow Wilson, 1913.
This political cat-and-mouse game will only end when people wake up to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ That is the proverbial $64,000 question. Saturday’s No Kings demonstration will be a tipping point for the wanna-be-king. Let’s not disappoint him.
Ford, Alex T., et al. “Corporate ‘Capture Strategies’ Impacting Human and Ecosystem Health.” Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2025).
Passow, Uta, and Edward B. Overton. “The complexity of spills: the fate of the Deepwater Horizon oil.” Annual review of marine science 13.1 (2021): 109-136.
Portman, Michelle E. “Regulatory capture by default: Offshore exploratory drilling for oil and gas.” Energy Policy 65 (2014): 37-47.
Shapiro, Sidney A. “The complexity of regulatory capture: Diagnosis, causality, and remediation.” Roger Williams UL Rev. 17 (2012): 221.
Wilson, Woodrow. The new freedom: A call for the emancipation of the generous energies of a people. Doubleday, Page, 1913.
Well stated issue. The IQ and emotional intelligence of a large sector of the electorate is a big concern— they vote against their own interests.