Keystone XL pipeline construction decision, proposal for agency reorganization, online freedom protests, and more.
- The Obama administration announced its rejection of TransCanada’s application for a permit to build and operate the Keystone XL oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canadian border, but says it will allow the company to apply again for later consideration.
- President Obama asked Congress for the power to streamline and combine overlapping federal agencies.
- Several interest groups contested President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). See related The Regulatory Review essay.
- In the wake of the Costa Concordia accident off the coast of Italy the cruise line industry may face new regulations.
- Website-backed protests swept the Internet to raise awareness of the Internet anti-piracy bills Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are working their way through the House and Senate, respectively.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a group of fund managers with reaping millions from insider trading schemes involving Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp. shares.
- Revised guidelines that recommend a minimum size for breeding lab rodents’ cages may increase substantially the cost of animal work for all research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
- China extended a regulation requiring users of microblogs, a popular form of online communication in China similar to “tweeting,” to register their real identities with the government.
- The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated the agency will not enforce older rules on toxic emissions from large industrial boilers and incinerators until it has finalized new rules by the spring of 2012. See related The Regulatory Review essay.
- Japanese bankers are mounting an effort against the Volcker rule, arguing that the restriction on U.S. banks’ proprietary trading could harm the market for Japanese government bonds.
