CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
One of this week’s 55 proposed regulations is a 264-page Interior Department regulation to prevent water stream pollution from coal mines. Final rules published cover everything from dairy tariffs to extension cords.
On to the data:
- Last week, 74 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 65 the previous week.
- That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 16 minutes.
- So far in 2015, 1,875 final regulations have been published in the Federal Register. At that pace, there will be a total of 3,189 new regulations this year, which would be several hundred fewer rules than the usual total of 3,500-plus.
- Last week, 1,586 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,540 pages the previous week.
- Currently at 45,795 pages, the 2015 Federal Register is on pace for 77,882 pages.
- 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, none in the past week.
- The total estimated compliance cost of 2015’s economically significant regulations ranges from $1.32 billion to $1.41 billion for the current year.
- 157 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” have been published so far this year.
- So far in 2015, 323 new rules affect small businesses; 48 of them are classified as significant.
Highlights from selected final rules published last week:
- Dairy tariffs.
- According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, extension cords are hazardous.
- Pollution standards for cement manufacturers in Portland.
- Energy efficiency tests for vending machines.
- And dehumidifiers.
- Interstate transport of fine particulate matter.
- The Honduran emerald hummingbird is now an endangered species.
- The EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently published greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for larger vehicles. They will be holding public hearings on August 6 and August 18 concerning the rule.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.