The week in ridiculous regulations: Oklahoma emissions and Big Creek crayfish

Photo Credit: Getty

GDP grew by 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Cable news hosts Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon were both fired. Meanwhile, agencies issued new regulations ranging from endangered moss to NASA penalties.

On to the data:

  • Agencies issued 62 final regulations last week, after 46 the previous week.
  • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and 43 minutes.
  • With 997 final regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 3,040 final regulations this year.
  • For comparison, there were 3,168 new final regulations in 2022, and 3,257 new final regulations in 2021.
  • Agencies issued 37 proposed regulations in the Federal Register last week, after 34 the previous week.
  • With 711 proposed regulations so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 2,168 proposed regulations this year.
  • For comparison, there were 2,044 new proposed regulations in 2022, and 2,094 in 2021.
  • Agencies published 412 notices last week, after 461 notices the previous week.
  • With 7,261 notices so far in 2023, agencies are on pace to issue 22,137 notices this year.
  • For comparison, there were 22,505 notices in 2022, and 20,018 in 2021.
  • Last week, 1,788 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,352 pages the previous week.
  • The average Federal Register issue in 2023 contains 323 pages.
  • With 26,466 pages so far, the 2023 Federal Register is on pace for 80,689 pages.
  • For comparison, the 2022 Federal Register totals 80,756 pages, and 2021’s is 74,352 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (subtracting skips, jumps, and blank pages) is 96,994, set in 2016.
  • Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. This will soon change to $200 million. There are eight such rules so far in 2023, none in the last week.
  • This is on pace for 24 economically significant regulations in 2023.
  • For comparison, there were 43 economically significant rules in 2022, and 26 in 2021. These comparisons will not be strictly apple-to-apple after the threshold change takes effect. This will likely lower this year’s number.
  • The total estimated cost of 2023’s economically significant regulations so far ranges from $55.92 billion to $78.74 billion, according to numbers self-reported by agencies.
  • For comparison, the running cost tally for 2022’s economically significant rules ranges from net costs of $45.28 billion to $78.05 billion. In 2021, net costs ranged from $13.54 billion to $19.36 billion. The exact numbers depend on discount rates and other assumptions.
  • There were five regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant” last week, after four the previous week.
  • So far this year, there are 86 new regulations meeting the broader definition of “significant.” This is on pace for 256 significant regulations in 2023.
  • For comparison, there were 255 such new regulations in 2022, and 387 in 2021.
  • So far in 2023, 250 new regulations affect small businesses, on pace for 762. Twenty-four of them are significant, on pace for 73.
  • For comparison, in 2022 there were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 70 of them significant. 2021’s totals were 912 rules affecting small businesses, 101 of them significant.

Highlights from last week’s new regulations:

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