CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

Another normal week in the regulatory world, with nearly 80 rules covering everything from fireworks shows to walk-in freezers.

On to the data:

  • Last week, 77 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 58 new final rules the previous week.
  • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 11 minutes.
  • So far in 2014, 1,224 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,221 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
  • Last week, 1,772 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
  • Currently at 28,570 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 75,185 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. Sixteen such rules have been published so far this year, one of them in the past week.
  • The total estimated compliance costs of 2014’s economically significant regulations currently ranges from $1.77 billion to $2.14 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
  • One hundred and four final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
  • So far in 2014, 245 new rules affect small businesses; 33 of them are classified as significant.

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

  • This week’s economically significant rule comes from the Defense Department. It pays for a number of voluntary outside educational programs for its employees, which accounted for $84 billion in spending during FY 2013. Administrative costs and other compliance issues cost an estimated $413,500, which is all that I’m adding to our running compliance cost tally.
  • On May 17, there was a fireworks show in the San Diego Bay. The federal government established a safety zone near where the fireworks were set off.
  • If you grow cotton and would like to know what grade it is, be glad the Agricultural Marketing Service is keeping its cotton grading prices the same as last year – $2.20 per bale.
  • Ambient air quality standards for Iowa.
  • Georgia, too.
  • Energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers.

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