Just a quick note to friends and family who read this blog that everyone in DC is ok. A wit posted a picture of the damage if you care to take a look.
I have heard rumors of buildings collapsing further south in Culpeper, Virginia and Louisa County, Virginia, near the epicenter. There is less humor to be found there; hope everyone’s alright.
In July, President Obama issued an executive order requiring independent agencies to comb through their books and axe obsolete or harmful rules. A similar order for cabinet-level agencies in January saved an estimated $1.5 billion in regulatory costs, or a little less than 0.1 percent of total annual federal regulatory costs.
The order gives agencies 100 days to act. The FCC struck a little early by announcing yesterday it was getting rid of 83 rules. The White House is expected to release the final package for all independent agencies today. Total estimated savings are $10 billion over five years. Combined with the earlier executive order, federal regulatory costs could go from $1.752 trillion per year to about $1.749 trillion per year.
One of the rules the FCC is chucking is the Fairness Doctrine, which empowers the FCC to regulate the ideology of political programming. It hasn’t been enforced since 1987 because it violates the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech”). But until now, nobody thought to actually remove it from the Code of Federal Regulations. It’s been sitting there the whole time!
Other hygienic measures the FCC is taking include “the deletion of obsolete “broadcast flag,” cable programming service tier rate, and broadcast applications and proceedings rules,” according to an FCC press release.
The repeals will become official upon publication in the Federal Register.
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Posted in regulation
Tagged executive order, fairness doctrine, fcc, federal register, regulatory repeals
Ho-hum. Another series sweep. Now Milwaukee travels to Pittsburgh. The four-game set starts with a doubleheader today. On Thursday, the team gets its first day off since August 8.
Elsewhere, the Cardinals beat the Cubs 6-2.
The magic number is down to 27.
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Posted in Sports
The Brewers split a doubleheader with the Pirates. Neither game was a close one. They’ll regroup and go at it again tonight.
The Cardinals lost their game to the Dodgers, 2-1.
And just for fun, Mrs. Inertia and I went to last night’s Nationals-Diamondbacks contest. Washington prevailed 4-1 over first-place Arizona. The Nats are a sterling 3-0 in their games I’ve attended this year. Unfortunately, the other two were against the Brewers.
Milwaukee’s magic number goes down by 2. It is now 25, with 32 games left to play. The remaining-games-to-magic-number ratio is at 1.28; it will be fun to see if the Brewers can improve on that ratio.
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Posted in Sports
What a game! The Brewers were up 7-1 coming into the 7th. By the end of the 8th, the Mets held a 9-7 advantage. A 4-run 9th put the Brewers on top 11-9. Closer John Axford preserved the lead with his team-record 34th consecutive save, and guaranteed a series win for the Brewers.
The Cardinals and Cubs also played a day game; the Cubs prevailed, 3-0.
Milwaukee’s magic number is now 28 with 35 games to play. They lead their division by 8.5 games.
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Posted in Sports
The Brewers got 7 strong innings out of pitcher Shaun Marcum, and the offense took advantage of every opportunity it could. Game two of the three-game set starts shortly.
The Cardinals fell to the Cubs 5-4 in extra innings.
Milwaukee’s magic number is down to 30 with 36 games left. Their playoff odds are up to 94.1 percent.
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Posted in Sports
Tomorrow, parents and children across the country will set up lemonade stands in their neighborhoods. More info here. And they’re going to do it without getting licensed, inspected, poked, and prodded by regulators. But not everyone is happy about it. Esther Cepeda writes:
By all means, let’s celebrate Lemonade Freedom Day — make it a teaching moment. Those who actually care about preparing the next generation to become profitable businesspeople should take their favorite youngster down to city hall to jump through the necessary hoops and learn what it really takes to become a successful entrepreneur.
Sounds more likely to discourage than encourage young entrepreneurs.
Still not a bad idea, though. A trip to city hall would be an excellent way to teach the young ones about opportunity costs. Show them the forms they have to fill out. The licenses they have to apply for. How long permits take to process. Take them to the store and show them how long it takes to buy and install a handwashing station; many towns require lemonade stands to have at least one.
Then tell them they could have spent all that time actually selling lemonade.
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Posted in Nanny State, regulation
Tagged esther cepeda, lemonade freedom day
Some of the stranger regulations I’ve dug up recently:
The brooms can stay in their closets. The Dodgers avoided a sweep by outpitching and outhitting the Crew; not often that happens lately.
Up next is a road trip to New York and Pittsburgh.
St. Louis is off today, so Milwaukee’s magic number remains 32 with 37 games left.
There’s a lot of baseball left to play, but one site is putting the Brewers’ odds of making the playoffs at 90.3 percent.
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Posted in Sports
Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman tells the story of how the EPA is forcing a power plant in New Mexico to install $370 million worth of equipment to improve visibility in a nearby park. Peer-reviewed research says the visibility improvement has a 35 percent chance of being perceptible to the human eye. New Mexican electricity consumers, meanwhile, will be able to perceive their bills going up by an average of $82 per year.
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Posted in CEI Podcast, regulation, The New Religion
Tagged clean air act, electricity, electricity regulation, epa, New Mexico
Inertia Wins! 