Care to guess the fastest growing area of federal regulation?
More than 37,000 regulatory reviews were issued by federal agencies from 1981 to January 2005, according to reginfo.gov. Environmental agencies started 6,354 of them. Only agriculture sparked more regulatory activity.
It’s gotten even worse since then. Regulatory expert Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that environmental regulations now make up 30 percent of all economically significant regulations submitted for review — more than any other issue.
Federal regulatory spending on environmental issues has increased an incredible 7,372 percent between 1960 and 2006.
This explosion of regulation of everything remotely connected to the use of land, air and water adds to American taxpayers’ daily burdens, increases the cost of doing business, and destroys millions of jobs, sometimes even whole industries.
Often, the regulation is to aid creatures like the Tennessee snail darter fish. The consequences for human beings can range from minor inconveniences to economic catastrophe.
The regulation has also given the Big Green radical environmental movement and its allies in the federal bureaucracy unprecedented new political power and resources. The raw numbers tell the tale.
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