CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

Just another week in the world of regulation:

• 58 new final rules were published during the short work week last week, down from 95 the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 54 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All in all, 1,564 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year. If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,741 new rules.
• 1,347 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register last week, for a total of 32,829 pages. At this pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 77,427 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 24 such rules published so far in 2012 have compliance costs of at least $14.5 billion. Two of the rules do not have cost estimates, and a third cost estimate does not give a total annual cost. We assume that rules lacking this basic transparency measure cost the bare minimum of $100 million per year. The true cost is almost certainly higher.
• Two economically significant rules were published last week. So far, 180 significant final rules have been published in 2012.
• So far this year, exactly 300 final rules affect small businesses. 48 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• The two new economically significant rules come from the Energy Department. One rule sets new energy efficiency standards for dishwashers, the other for washing machines.
• If you’re a lobster fisherman in Maine, you should be aware of some new regulations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• HHS issued a correction to its health care bill-related rules for creating health insurance exchanges. If states continue to refuse to create the exchanges, and depending on how the Supreme Court case goes, it may end up a moot point.

For more data, updated daily, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.