Regulatory Transactions

From: Biodiesel Magazine

By Erin Voegele

On Oct. 19, the U.S. EPA delivered its proposed rule to set renewable fuel standard (RFS) volumes for 2017 and biomass-based diesel volumes for 2018 to the White House Office of Management and Budget. OBM review marks a last step before a final rule is issued.

The proposed rule was first issued by EPA on May 18. It aims to set RFS renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2017, along with the 2018 RVO for biomass-based diesel. In the proposed rule, the agency suggested setting the 2017 RVO for advanced biofuel at 4 billion ethanol-equivalent gallons, or 2.67 biodiesel-equivalent gallons, cellulosic biofuel at 312 million gallons, and total renewable fuel at 18.8 billion gallons. The 2018 RVO for biomass-based diesel has been proposed at 2.1 billion gallons.

Editor’s Note: NHTSA’s proposed tire rating system will need to comply with the Data Quality Act.

From: Tire Review

It’s been years in the making, but finally rulemaking to empower consumers with a “tire rating system” is under review.

The NHTSA’s rulemaking to provide consumers with information about tire fuel efficiency, wet traction and tread wear is now being reviewed by The White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OMB/OIRA).

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From: Weekly Standard

A Department of Education proposal gets closer to being a reality.

By Alice B. Lloyd

The Department of Education’s proposal to broaden the existing borrower defense to repayment rule will give college students new grounds to sue their schools for loan forgiveness. Underemployed grads and downtrodden dropouts can claim they were misled and never got their federally loaned money’s worth. But the biggest problem with the proposal is the price tag. Indeed, the potential cost to taxpayers is virtually inestimable in its vastness: somewhere between two and 43 billion dollars, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

From: American Action Forum

Sam Batkins

From: The National Law Review

Article By Lynn L. Bergeson, Carla N. Hutton

. . . EPA proposed to require persons that manufacture or process certain chemical substances when manufactured or processed at the nanoscale to report electronically to EPA certain information, including the specific chemical identity, production volume, methods of manufacture and processing, exposure and release information, and existing data concerning environmental and health effects.  EPA also proposed to require any persons who intend to manufacture or process chemical substances as discrete nanoscale materials after the effective date of the final rule to notify EPA of the same information at least 135 days before the intended date of commencement of manufacture or processing. . . .

From: Fleet Owner

New highway bill calls for 20 FMCSA rulemakings; here’s what coming

Kevin Jones

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And the federal rulemaking process—notices of proposed rules, cost-benefit calculations, public comment periods, extensive reviews—are there to protect the public from “over-zealous” regulation. In short, “there shouldn’t be any surprise” when a new rule is developed, he emphasized.

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And the number and scope of the new and pending rules might prompt truckers to wonder just how successful those protections from over-zealous federal regulators truly are, and instead to side with ATA President and CEO Chris Spear who earlier in the annual meeting faulted regulators who “issue mandates as if they were mere parking tickets.”

From: Design World

Energy efficient doesn’t mean cost efficient

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I recalled this incident when reviewing a recent report on whether energy efficiency regulations put in place by the Dept. of Energy are worth what they cost. DOE efficiency regulations now apply to everything from refrigerators and water heaters to lamp ballasts and electric motors. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) says these mandates have posed the third-highest cost burden on U.S. citizens from 2002 to 2012 of any regulatory agency, behind only those from the DoT and EPA.

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