Recent work by, among others, Michael Greenstone at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology backs that approach.

ECONOMIST: Climate-change talks

That is a theme not adequately covered in the debate over fracking, agreed Michael Greenstone, an environmental economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former top adviser to the Obama administration.

WSJ: Celebrity 'fractivists': True advocates or NIMBYs?

Michael Greenstone of the Hamilton Project, a liberal-leaning research group, thinks that could be done through the creation of a non-partisan congressional oversight body using the best evidence available to vet regulations, much as the Congressional Budget Office vets fiscal policy.

ECONOMIST: Measuring the impact of regulation