The federal government has been busy this past month, listing nearly 1,800 new regulations in the last 30 days, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of the federal website Regulations.gov. This means the government was listing about 60 new regulations per day on its website during the month of January.
Regulations.gov shows that 1,791 regulations were listed in the last 30 days, when TheDCNF reviewed the data on Thursday. Of these rules, 1,214 are listed as “rulemaking” and 577 are listed as “non-rulemaking.”
“Rulemaking” regulations can establish a new rule while “non-rulemaking” regulations do not establish a new rule.
One of the largest groups of new regulations has to do with pending energy and environmental rules from federal agencies. Probably the most contentious energy rule of President Obama’s tenure are the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed limits to greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants was listed earlier this month.
The proposed rule would severely limit carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants, effectively preventing any new coal-fired power plants from being built unless they use carbon capture technology. The coal industry and Republicans, however, argue that such technology has not been commercially proven, therefore the administration’s rule is a de facto ban on coal plants.
“Forcing America to abandon its largest and most reliable energy source is a reckless gamble with the nation’s economy,” Hal Quinn, president of the National Mining Association, said in a statement. “A more expensive and less diverse electricity supply will only stand in the way of economic growth and job creation.”
Environmentalists, on the other hand, argue that limiting emissions from coal plants is necessary to curb global warming, which they argue is being driven by burning fossil fuels.
“To fight the climate crisis, we must resist the temptation to trade away American jobs and public interest policies to foreign corporations,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “We must walk away from boondoggles like fracked gas. And we must seize on the opportunity and the obligation that the climate crisis has thrust upon us.”
The EPA’s proposed emissions limits are just one hundreds of energy and environment-related regulations that have been listed by federal agencies. Regulations are the rules agencies must craft after Congress passes a law and include: “Notices from the Federal Register; Proposed Rules; Final Rules,” according to Regulations.gov.
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