CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

The dog days of summer may be upon us, but regulatory agencies are still working hard, issuing 46 proposed regulations and finalizing nearly 100 more regulations.

On to the data:

• Last week, 98 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 74 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 43 minutes.
• So far in 2014, 2,104 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,554 new regulations this year. This would be the lowest total in decades; this will likely change as the year goes on.
• Last week, 1,448 new pages were added to the Federal Register.
• Currently at 44,987 pages, the 2014 Federal Register is on pace for 75,992 pages. This 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. 22 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 $7.34 billion to $10.57 billion. They also affect several billion dollars of government spending.
• 171 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
• So far in 2014, 388 new rules affect small businesses; 58 of them are classified as significant. 

Highlights from selected final rules published last week:

• The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau is eliminating a little-used form. This little bit of housecleaning could stand to be done at other agencies as well.
• The federal government has designated a new wine-growing region in northern California, to be called Manton Valley.
• The Short’s bladderpod, whorled sunflower, and fleshy-fruit gladecress are now endangered species.
• A few corrections to the federal government’s National Poultry Improvement Plan.
• Administrative Updates to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Regulations.
• Moroccan blueberries are now legal to import, if they meet certain conditions.
• New energy conservation standards for home furnaces.
• If you grow pears, you can buy pear crop insurance from the federal government.

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