Browse regulations

Establishes NEPA compliance procedures for the Water Resources Council and river basin commissions, requiring environmental assessments and impact statements for water resource planning activities, defining responsibilities, and integrating NEPA with planning standards.

The Water Resources Council was abolished in 1981, rendering this rule a dead letter. Even if still active, NEPA's costly procedural mandates delay vital infrastructure, invite frivolous litigation, and federalize decisions properly left to states, while providing minimal environmental benefits that could be achieved more efficiently through property rights and market-based approaches.

Mandates extensive data collection and reporting requirements for electric utilities exceeding certain sales thresholds, including filing with state regulators and public disclosure of operational data, with specific filing schedules and exemption provisions.

Creates substantial compliance costs and administrative burden on utilities without clear evidence of public benefit, while distorting market incentives and enabling regulatory capture through data collection that could be used to justify further intervention.

Regulation defines transportation, market centers, and major non-interstate pipelines; establishes refund and interest requirements; exempts certain transactions from Natural Gas Act; sets reporting standards; mandates firm and interruptible transportation services; requires non-discriminatory access; establishes capacity release mechanisms; and outlines operational and communication protocols for interstate pipelines under Parts B and G of federal regulations.

This regulation creates massive compliance costs exceeding $2 trillion annually, imposes complex reporting requirements that no citizen can comprehend, and enables regulatory capture through bureaucratic mission creep far beyond congressional intent. The unseen costs include distorted market incentives, barriers to entry for small businesses, and erosion of constitutional federalism.

Regulation from 1979 mandates interstate natural gas pipelines to implement curtailment plans that prioritize deliveries during supply shortages, with Priority 1 for high-purity uses (residences, schools, hospitals) and Priority 2 for essential agricultural uses certified by USDA. Requires complex indices of entitlements, annual filings, and attribution calculations across multiple supply tiers.

This outdated 1979 rationing system imposes massive compliance burdens while distorting market allocation. Price signals—not bureaucratic priority categories—efficiently allocate scarce resources. The shale revolution eliminated the chronic shortages that justified this intervention. Unseen costs include regulatory capture in 'essential agricultural' certifications, complex attribution calculations, and barriers to flexible market responses. States and market pricing better handle genuine emergencies without federal micromanagement.

Establishes reporting forms for broker-dealers in SIPA liquidation proceedings, requiring detailed documentation of buy-ins, sell-outs, fails to deliver, and fails to receive to protect customer assets during broker-dealer failures.

This regulation provides essential transparency and accountability during financial institution failures, ensuring customer assets can be properly identified and recovered. Without these standardized reporting requirements, broker-dealer liquidations would lack the necessary documentation to track open positions and failed transactions, potentially leaving investors unable to recover their investments and undermining confidence in the financial system.

Rules governing account classification and claims processing for Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) members during liquidation proceedings, including account segregation, open contractual commitments, standardized options, and supplemental reporting requirements.

This regulation creates excessive complexity and compliance costs for financial institutions while providing redundant protections already covered by private insurance and market discipline. The intricate rules for account classification and claims processing represent regulatory overreach that distorts market incentives and creates barriers to entry for smaller firms.

Regulation establishes standards for futures associations to become registered self-regulatory organizations under the CFTC, and requires futures commission merchants, swap dealers, and other market participants to be members of such associations. It mandates specific governance, operational, and rulemaking requirements for these associations.

Keeping this regulation imposes billions in compliance costs on businesses and consumers, entrenches regulatory capture by mandating association membership, creates barriers to entry for small firms, and substitutes centralized, coercive rulemaking for dynamic market-based governance. Its repeal would unleash competition, lower costs, and restore individual liberty.

This regulation bans toys and articles for children under 3 that pose choking hazards from small parts, requiring compliance testing using a cylinder test and exempting certain items like balloons and books. It establishes a comprehensive safety standard for infant/toddler products across multiple categories including toys, furniture, and childcare items.

Americans would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it prevents preventable childhood deaths and injuries from choking on small parts in toys and childcare products. The standardized testing protocol provides clear, enforceable safety standards that manufacturers can follow, and the exemption list balances safety with practicality. Without this regulation, parents would face increased risk when purchasing products for infants and toddlers, and the market would lack consistent safety guidelines.

This regulation mandates that manufacturers of cellulose insulation affix a warning label to containers, alerting purchasers and installers to keep insulation at least three inches away from recessed light fixtures and exhaust flues to prevent fire hazards. It applies to residential insulation products manufactured after October 15, 1979, and specifies exact label wording, size, and placement. The purpose is to inform the public of the risk of improper installation and thereby reduce fire-related injuries.

Keeping this federal labeling requirement imposes unnecessary costs on manufacturers, encroaches on state and local authority over building safety, and duplicates protections already enforced via building codes and tort liability. The marginal safety benefit is outweighed by the unseen costs of expanding federal regulatory reach, contributing to the $2 trillion burden, and setting a precedent for further intervention in local matters.

This regulation establishes flame resistance and corrosiveness requirements for cellulose insulation to reduce injury risks from flammable and corrosive materials. It prescribes testing procedures for settled density, corrosion resistance, and critical radiant flux, along with labeling requirements.

This creates unnecessary compliance costs and barriers for small insulation manufacturers. The complex testing requirements and equipment specifications effectively protect large producers while raising prices for consumers. Fire safety and material quality can be achieved through building codes and market competition without federal micromanagement.

Consumer Product Safety Standard for walk-behind power lawn mowers requiring blade shields, foot probe tests, blade control systems, and warning labels to reduce foot/hand injuries from rotating blades. Covers rotary and reel-type mowers with specific size/weight/horsepower exclusions.

$35 price increase per mower creates barriers to entry, disproportionately affecting small businesses and low-income consumers. The $2 trillion annual regulatory compliance cost burden and 185,000-page CFR demonstrate how regulations create hidden taxes and protect incumbents while reducing market competition.

Consumer Product Safety Act investigation procedures enabling CPSC to inspect facilities, obtain documents, take testimony, and issue compulsory process for product safety enforcement

Enables federal intrusion into private business operations under broad authority, with massive compliance costs and chilling effects on innovation. Creates regulatory uncertainty that disproportionately harms small manufacturers while expanding federal power beyond constitutional limits into areas better handled by market forces and state oversight.

Regulation mandates strict R-value labeling, testing, advertising, and disclosure requirements for home insulation products. It applies to manufacturers, distributors, installers, retailers, and advertisers, requiring ASTM-standard tests, specific package labels, fact sheets for customers, and record-keeping for three years.

Imposes significant compliance costs on thousands of small businesses through mandatory ASTM testing, complex labeling, and fact sheet distribution. These costs are passed to consumers as higher prices and create barriers to entry that protect incumbent manufacturers. The regulation duplicates the FTC's existing Section 5 authority to police deceptive practices while adding immense prescriptive complexity that makes the law unknowable. Private certification and market competition could achieve truthful disclosure more efficiently.

This regulation establishes detailed requirements for automotive fuel rating certification, labeling, and recordkeeping across the fuel supply chain, from refiners to retailers, with specific octane rating calculations and label specifications for gasoline and alternative fuels.

This regulation imposes massive compliance costs on fuel businesses ($14,000+ per household annually), creates regulatory complexity that no one can fully comprehend, and represents federal overreach into commerce that should be handled at state/local levels under the Tenth Amendment.

EDIS is NOAA's environmental data program that collects, archives, and disseminates atmospheric, marine, and geophysical data through specialized centers; provides library services, environmental assessments for energy/agriculture, satellite data, and a data index for public and commercial users.

Crowds out private data markets, violates federalism, lacks market efficiency, and represents unnecessary federal expansion into activities that private firms or states could handle at lower cost with greater innovation.