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EPA Launches Website to Increase Transparency of Regulatory Activity

Release Date: 12/03/2010
Contact Information: Richard Yost, [email protected], 202-564-7827, 202-564-4355

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new website called Reg Stat that will enhance public understanding of its regulatory process and the number, type, and range of regulatory documents developed each year by the agency. This new resource is part of the EPA’s continuing efforts to enhance the accessibility and transparency of its regulatory activities.

Reg Stat provides information on EPA documents published in the Federal Register between 2005 and 2009. It also provides in-depth information on rulemakings likely to be of most interest to stakeholders -- those rules signed by the EPA administrator that substantively amend the Code of Federal Regulations. Users will be able to determine the number of rules signed by the administrator, how long it took to develop each rule, whether a rule underwent Executive Order 12866 regulatory review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the length of OMB review. Both summary graphics and searchable data tables are available.

An analysis of the data featured on Reg Stat shows that EPA publishes 1,700 to 1,900 documents in the Federal Register each year. Notices, which provide general information of public interest such as meeting announcements, make up the majority of these documents. Approximately 7 percent, or about 100, of those documents are rules that amend the Code of Federal Regulations and require the administrator’s signature; the average time to publish these rules is 974 days.

Users will be able to download and sort the data based on categories of interest. Information on Reg Stat will be updated annually.

More information on Reg Stat: https://www.epa.gov/regstat