#overregulation

According to CEI’s annual “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State,” federal regulations have cost an estimated $1.9 trillion each year. That’s $14,455 per American household on average in “hidden taxes,” greater than corporate and personal income taxes combined. In 2019, government agencies passed 2,964 new regulations, the first year that federal bureaucrats passed fewer than 3,000 since records began to take measure in 1976. That’s still thousands of new rules passed in the absence of Congress, however, which passed just 105 bills in comparison.

“If Obama had a pen and a phone, then Trump can have a little bit of a meat axe,” said CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews, who compiled the report, but added that Trump’s power in rolling back the administrative state faces limits. Trump can’t get rid of rules, he can only replace them, making it difficult for Trump to command agencies to forgo their massive power.

Independent agencies, Crews told The Federalist, were even worse, as the two-for-one rule applies only to executive agencies with presidential oversight.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. **Key Takeaways:** 1. **Europe’s Economic Stagnation:** UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti warns that Europe’s economic malaise, characterized by over-regulation, lack of innovation, and slow growth, will persist until a severe crisis forces political action, echoing concerns about…

Fingers crossed.

John Myers of the California Chamber of Commerce says their proposed measure is all about providing certainty to an often unpredictable and indeterminate CEQA process.

The initiative "seeks to provide clarity to the process of building the essential projects California needs," Myers tells Reason. "We're not changing a single environmental law. We are not guaranteeing that projects get built. We're simply trying to provide certainty in how projects get reviewed."

Even so, changing what is currently an amorphous "study everything" law into a checklist of regulatory compliance "would be a huge change," says Christopher Elmendorf, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. "Basically it ends CEQA in anything like the form we've known it."

In the past several years, the California Legislature has pared back CEQA largely by excluding certain types of projects from the law's requirements entirely. But lawmakers have been a lot more reticent to reform what CEQA requires of the projects it still covers.

For instance, last year, lawmakers approved a major CEQA exemption for urban infill housing. But a bill attempting to streamline the CEQA process for projects it still covers died in the Legislature.

We’ve all seen it those endless double yellow lines spreading across our towns like a plague of bureaucratic stupidity. Once meant for safety and traffic flow, now they’re slapped down almost everywhere, even where there’s no real reason for them. And then the council has the nerve to moan that high streets are dying and local businesses are closing. No wonder nobody can park anywhere.

In my local town, it’s beyond ridiculous. You circle around like a vulture, praying for a free space that isn’t marked with yellow paint, only to give up and drive home. The message is clear: “Shop online instead.” That’s what this kind of overregulation does. It kills community, small business, and local trade.

What’s worse is the hypocrisy. They install double yellows on every curb, then talk about “revitalising the high street” with some pointless art project or cycle lane nobody asked for. All while the very people who’d actually spend money in town can’t even stop their car without risking a fine.

It’s not Law and Order. It’s laziness dressed as safety. Councils would rather issue parking tickets than plan practical parking. They’re punishing drivers and taxpayers for simply existing.

The most easily accessible geothermal resources in the U.S. are located on federal lands in the western states. But proposed geothermal projects have been stymied for years by having to undergo as many as six environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act before proceeding.

In contrast, oil and gas projects have been granted categorical exclusions, which exempt them from detailed environmental reviews due to their minimal impact. In April the Bureau of Land Management, which administers 245 million acres of federal land, finally adopted categorical exclusions for geothermal energy exploration.