CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

The number of new regulations this year broke the 1,000 mark, and the number of rules affecting small businesses passed 200.

On to the data:

• Last week, 60 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 84 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 48 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 1,012 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,163 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,248 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 23,229 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 72,591 pages, which would be the lowest total since 2009.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Twelve such rules have been published so far this year, none of them in the past week.
• The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $1.64 billion to $2.01 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• Eighty-one final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 203 new rules affect small businesses; 27 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The Energy Department revised its protocols for dealing with Freedom of Information Act requests.
• On May 8, there will be a fireworks show in Baltimore near the Patapsco River. The federal government is establishing a temporary safety zone in the area near the show.
• The Copyright Royalty Board established new royalty rates for certain types of recordings.
• The federal government employs a number of auto mechanics. A new regulation updates their pay.
• The Agricultural Marketing Service has lowered its assessment rate on spearmint oil growers in the Far West region from 10 cents to 9 cents per pound.
• Ballonbau Wörner GmbH balloons are subject to new airworthiness requirements from the FAA.
• Residents of the Milwaukee-Racine area in Wisconsin will be pleased to find out that they are now in compliance with the EPA’s fine particle air quality standards.
• New testing procedures for energy efficiency in refrigerators and freezers.

For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.