CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation

This week in the world of regulation:

  • Last week, 32 new final rules were published, down from 48 the previous Thanksgiving-shortened week.
  • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 5 hours and 15 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • All in all, 3,336 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
  • If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,722 new rules.
  • Last week, 722 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register, for a total of 69,993 pages.
  • At its current pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 77,426 pages.
  • Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 45 such rules published so far in 2012 have compliance costs of at least $24 billion. Two of the rules do not have cost estimates, and two other rules have cost estimates that do 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, 319 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2012.
  • So far this year, 623 final rules affect small business; 90 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

  • The Energy Department recently outlined test procedures for dishwashers and dehumidifiers to see if they meet new energy efficiency standards. Apparently they didn’t get them quite right, because they issued a correction on Friday.
  • The Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have teamed up to issue an update to Regulation M, which has to do with consumer leasing, and two updates to Regulation Z, which covers truth in lending.
  • The FAA issued four airworthiness directives for Boeing and Cessna airplanes. You can read them here, here, here, and here.
  • If you are interested in transporting solid waste by rail, you should be aware of this new regulation covering transfer facilities.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.