President Trump’s efforts to lighten the load of federal regulation felt by American industry has reached a “strange bedfellows” resistance point. “Bootleggers and Baptists” (interest groups that support the same regulation for entirely different reasons) are beginning to raise a ruckus. In this case, major oil companies and leading environmental groups alike are saying, “Enough, already. We want enforcement of the costly rules that are currently on the books.”

That theory also helps explain why America winds up with expensive, process-oriented regulations — like technology-based rules that strongly favor larger, richer firms — instead of outcome-focused regulations that inspire new and different ways to accomplish a regulatory goal.