CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 71 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 64 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 22 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,298 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,458 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,377 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 29,188 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,011 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. For the fourth week in a row, no such rules were published last week, for a total of 12 so far in 2013.
• The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $5.58 billion to $10.19 billion.
• So far, 91 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 237 final rules affect small business; 21 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• Sea World San Diego holds regular fireworks shows during the summer. The Coast Guard issued a rule creating safety zones in nearby waters. One imagines that the city government, or even Sea World itself could manage the task without making a federal case of it.
• The FCC is revising its signal booster rules.
• The DEA is temporarily classifying three synthetic cannibinoids as Schedule I controlled substances. Schedule I is defined in part as having “no currently accepted medical use in the United States” and a “high potential for abuse.” It is the DEA’s most severe category. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin and cocaine. This may represent a bit of an overreaction on the DEA’s part.
• If you own a private land mobile radio station below 800 MHz, be aware of new FCC rules.
• The Magazine Mountain Shagreen is no longer on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. This small snail, native to Arkansas, is the first invertebrate to be delisted. Good news all around.
• The Agricultural Marketing Service is relaxing size and grade requirements for Valencia oranges.
• The AMS also amended its path-breaking Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order.
• Relatedly, the USDA is seeking nominees for the American Lamb Board if you’d like to be on it.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.