Monthly Archives: April 2013

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 66 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is down from 86 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 32 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,101 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,464 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,307 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 24,940 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 76,976 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules wre 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, 84 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 202 final rules affect small business; 20 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• If you’re a dairy farmer from the Northeast, you need be more than just a good caretaker for your cows. You practically need to be a lawyer.
• The federal government sets the schedule for a drawbridge in Portland, Oregon that spans the Willamette River.
• Commercial driver’s license applicants in certain states no longer need to report out-of-state convictions in certain other states.
• New rule from the EPA regulating open burning in Oregon under the Clean Air Act.
• The federal government has a Processed Pear Committee.
• Revised wage controls for immigrant workers under the H-2B visa.
• If you grow Irish potatoes in Colorado, be aware of new handling regulations.
• Critical habitat designated for desert buckwheat.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

• Audi has invented headlights that can “illuminate around corners and throw brighter-than-average beams. They’re also smarter, adjusting automatically to traffic, pedestrians, and road conditions.” But they can’t sell them in the U.S. because regulations require headlights to have distinct high and low settings. Audi is hoping to convince the government to modernize the rules to allow for their continuously adjusting lights.
• Economist David Henderson finds out that under Proposition 65, it is illegal to ship red licorice to California unless the packaging has a cancer warning label printed on it.
• Washington, D.C. is mulling food truck regulations that would essentially ban them from selling their delicious wares in the city’s downtown. At least one food truck, Pinup Panini, has already ceased operations because of the proposed rules.
• Meanwhile, across the Potomac, Arlington, Virginia will allow food trucks to park in the same spot for two hours instead of the current one hour.
• Montreal has ended its 65-year ban on street food.
• New York City entrepreneurs trying to start a new pizza parlor have turned to Kickstarter to raise $50,000. Most of the money will go towards regulatory compliance costs.
• Bus drivers in Marseilles, France are planning a one-day strike because their new uniform pants are too tight.
• Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission has had a long and cozy relationship with existing cab companies, and has denied permits to startups who would compete with them. With the Institute for Justice’s help, Mile High Cab, one of the denied entrants, sued. They won, and now people in Denver will have more transportation options. IJ recently celebrated a similar victory in Milwaukee.
• North Carolina is mulling requiring criminal background checks for dog owners.
• In Florida, it is apparently against the law to catch and keep Spanish mackerel fish unless you measure them.

This week in the world of regulation:

• Last week, 86 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. This is up from 67 new final rules the previous week.
• That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every  hour and fifty seven minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• All in all, 1,035 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
• If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,466 new final rules.
• Last week, 1,368 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 23,633 pages.
• At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 77,741 pages.
• Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule was 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, 83 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
• So far this year, 188 final rules affect small business; 20 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

• This week’s economically significant rule sets new energy conservation standards for distribution transformers. The cost analysis is rather convoluted, but it will impose about $62.2 million in costs to manufacturers. Other costs are estimated to $2.89 billion using a 7 percent discount rate, or $5.22 billion using a 4 percent discount rate.
• The FCC issued another tinkering with its Broadband Plan for America.
• Yet another Navy regulation for preventing collisions at sea. Must be much more difficult than it would appear.
• The EPA issued a minor correction (fixing typos) to a rule allowing sorghum to be used to make ethanol.
• It also issued a minor correction for its mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rules.
• New federal rules for training and retraining miners.
• In a nod to postmodernism, the FDIC has revised its regulations for reviewing regulations.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.