Browse regulations

Federal requirements for vessels carrying oil or hazardous materials, including spill containment equipment, emergency retrieval systems, towing arrangements, stability calculation programs, and coamings, applicable to U.S. and foreign vessels in U.S. waters, implementing MARPOL 73/78 and other standards.

Oil spills impose catastrophic externalities on coastal communities, fisheries, and ecosystems that the market cannot internalize. This regulation provides essential safeguards preventing spills and enabling rapid response; without it, Americans would face increased environmental damage and economic losses. Uniform federal standards are necessary for consistent port compliance and fulfillment of international treaty obligations.

Implements MARPOL 73/78 and related international conventions to prevent marine pollution from ships through discharge restrictions, equipment requirements, and enforcement mechanisms.

Creates $2+ trillion in compliance costs while protecting marine environment through existing private sector incentives and international treaties that nations already follow voluntarily. Small businesses face 30% higher compliance burden per employee, and regulations distort maritime industry incentives while achieving minimal additional environmental benefit beyond what market forces and existing liability laws already provide.

Interpretative rules for Inland Navigation Lights and Vessel Identification, clarifying when vessels must display specific lighting configurations under various operational conditions (composite units, anchored vessels, unmanned barges)

These rules are essential for maritime safety and collision prevention. Clear lighting requirements prevent accidents on shared waterways, protect lives and property, and enable vessels to identify each other's status and intentions. The costs of removing these standards would be immediate and visible - increased maritime accidents, loss of life, and property damage that far exceed any compliance burden.

Regulation requiring owners to mark and report maritime obstructions (sunken vessels, structures) in US navigable waters, with Coast Guard authority to mark and recover costs if owners fail.

Deletion would cause catastrophic collisions, environmental disasters, and loss of life. Private ordering fails: hazards arise from accidents/negligence, not planned activities, creating coordination problems. Coast Guard provides neutral, comprehensive hazard identification with cost recovery. This addresses a classic market failure with clear, narrow rules essential for safe interstate commerce.

This regulation prescribes the procedure for state officials to notify the Coast Guard to garnish wages of active-duty members delinquent on child support payments for two months or more, requiring specific documentation and submission to a designated Coast Guard office.

The regulation imposes unnecessary administrative costs on the Coast Guard and state officials while undermining Tenth Amendment principles by federalizing state domestic relations. States can enforce child support through existing federal garnishment mechanisms or courts without this redundant process. Its existence encourages mission creep, regulatory expansion, and hidden tax burdens, diverting resources from the Coast Guard's core national defense mission.

Defines the Coast Guard Reserve as a component of the Coast Guard, outlines its three primary use cases (mobilization, emergency augmentation, training), establishes administrative authority, and references the regulatory framework governing Reserve operations.

Internal military personnel regulation essential for national defense readiness. Provides clarity on Reserve mobilization authority, command structure, and integration with active duty. Deletion would undermine organizational coherence without reducing any regulatory burden on the public or distorting markets.

OSTP regulation implementing EO 12356 for national security classification. Establishes classification levels (Top Secret, Secret, Confidential), original classification authority, derivative classification, declassification procedures, and mandatory review processes with safeguards against overclassification.

Deletion would compromise legitimate national security secrets (intelligence sources, military plans, diplomatic relations). The regulation provides a standardized, accountable framework that balances protection with transparency through declassification requirements—precisely the structured approach necessary for safeguarding sensitive information without unchecked secrecy.

This regulation governs the Alternative Service Program for conscientious objectors classified as Class 1-W. It establishes an administrative apparatus (Alternative Service Offices, job banks, appeal boards) to place registrants in civilian work deemed to contribute to national health, safety, or interest. The rules cover job assignment procedures, employer eligibility, monitoring, performance standards, postponements, reassignment, and completion requirements. Registrants must perform 24 months of creditable service in approved positions, with various administrative mechanisms for appeals, hardship exemptions, and early release.

This regulation implements a constitutionally permissible statutory scheme that accommodates sincere religious/moral objections to military service while still requiring a substantial contribution to the national community. The administrative framework ensures fair placement, prevents abuse, protects both registrants and employers, and maintains the integrity of the alternative service obligation. Deleting it would undermine Congress's judgment that conscientious objectors should perform meaningful civilian service, creating legal uncertainty and potential for arbitrary or discriminatory treatment of this vulnerable class. The costs of administration are necessary to balance individual conscience rights with the government's legitimate interest in uniformed or alternative national service.

Prescribes entry control procedures for Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands, requiring authorizations for persons, ships, and aircraft entering the range, its territorial waters, and airspace. Establishes the National Range Commander and KMR Commander as authorities, defines categories of entrants (aliens, excluded persons, etc.), and outlines application requirements, processing, revocation, and appeal procedures.

Deletion would compromise security of a critical U.S. ballistic missile defense installation abroad, leaving access control to inconsistent ad hoc decisions. The regulation provides a clear, uniform framework that balances legitimate security screening with practical considerations (emergencies, authorized personnel) in a way that informal measures could not reliably achieve.

Regulation sets traffic, parking, and conduct rules for the Brookmont site (former Defense Mapping Agency property), requiring vehicle registration, permits, compliance with speed limits and signs, accident reporting, and imposes fines/imprisonment for violations.

Creates costly bureaucratic requirements (registration, permits, ID checks) and federal criminal penalties for minor traffic/parking matters on a single site—over-criminalization that adds to regulatory bloat with trivial benefits achievable via simpler property controls. Obsolete reference to defunct DMA underscores its lack of necessity.

Federal regulations governing mineral lease payments, reporting requirements, and penalty assessments for geothermal, solid minerals, and Indian oil and gas leases managed by ONRR

Creates excessive compliance costs and bureaucratic complexity for energy production on federal lands, with penalties that discourage exploration and development while imposing $2+ trillion in hidden costs on American households

This regulation from the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) governs audit procedures for oil, gas, and geothermal lessees/operators on Federal and Indian lands. It specifies methods for record production during audits, requires annual or as-directed independent CPA audits at the operator's expense, and mandates submission of audit reports to ONRR within 30 days to verify compliance with royalty and payment requirements. The Secretary may also conduct compliance audits.

This regulation imposes a targeted, duplicative audit regime that forces companies to bear the cost of independent CPAs for government-directed audits on top of their existing compliance obligations. It creates a separate enforcement apparatus for natural resource extraction that doesn't exist for other industries, distorting investment decisions and raising barriers to entry. The compliance burden—including mandatory third-party audits, secure electronic record submission protocols, and expedited reporting—represents a hidden tax that reduces returns on resource development, ultimately harming consumers through higher energy costs and taxpayers through reduced royalty revenues from diminished production. Resource extraction companies already face extensive tax, accounting, and securities regulations; this specialized audit mandate is mission creep that could be achieved through existing enforcement mechanisms without adding a standalone regulatory layer.

Mandates 6-year record retention for federal/Indian oil, gas, solid minerals, and geothermal lessees, operators, and revenue payors, with extensions during audits; requires records demonstrating royalty compliance be available for ONRR inspection; includes access to production volumes, pricing, and cost data.

Creates significant compliance and storage burdens on private energy companies; government already possesses audit and subpoena authority to obtain necessary records during investigations; blanket 6-year mandate is arbitrary, increases regulatory costs without commensurate benefit, and represents unnecessary state overreach into private business operations.

This regulation mandates comprehensive reporting requirements for entities extracting minerals from Federal and Indian lands. Companies must obtain payor codes, submit detailed production reports (Form ONRR-4054), royalty reports (Form ONRR-2014), sales data, and supporting documentation. Reporting is primarily electronic with limited exceptions for small businesses without computers, covering production volumes, sales values, royalty calculations, and transportation allowances to ensure proper accounting of revenues owed to the government.

Americans would be worse off without it because this is the primary mechanism for collecting billions in royalties from companies extracting public resources - effectively collecting rent on assets owned by taxpayers. The detailed reporting creates an auditable trail that prevents systematic underreporting of production and overstatement of deductions, which would otherwise be endemic in a voluntary system. While compliance is burdensome, the alternative is massive corporate welfare at public expense through lost revenue, with no practical way to verify what's actually extracted from federal lands.

This regulation establishes complex federal valuation methods for calculating royalties owed to Indian tribes and individual Indian mineral owners from oil and gas production. It defines terms like 'gross proceeds,' sets formulas using NYMEX prices, indices, and location/quality differentials, and prescribes how lessees must calculate and report royalty values. The ONRR (Office of Natural Resources Revenue) exercises significant discretion in approving pricing publications and determining valuations.

The regulation imposes massive compliance costs on energy producers—especially smaller operators—by mandating intricate accounting formulas and bureaucratic reporting requirements. It replaces voluntary, market-based contracts between tribal lessors and lessees with one-size-fits-all federal price-setting, stifling negotiation and innovation. The trust responsibility to tribes does not require micromanaging every valuation detail; tribes are fully capable of negotiating their own lease terms without bureaucratic intermediaries. This federal overreach distorts market signals, creates uncertainty, and ultimately raises energy costs for all Americans while undermining tribal sovereignty and the rule of law through incomprehensible complexity.