The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection released its Final Action Plan for Regulatory Reform at Mass DEP on March 5, 2012. DEP should be congratulated for its leadership in state government with regard to simplifying its regulations.<\/p>\n
That said, DEP has \u201cover sold\u201d or \u201cover advertised\u201d its effort.\u00a0 I was a member of the Regulatory Reform Working Group convened by DEP at the outset of its process. \u00a0The Commissioner established, and the process rigorously followed the standard that the Working Group was to focus solely on initiatives which DEP could accomplish by July 1, 2012. \u00a0In addition, the direction of the Working Group project solely was to identify DEP practices, policies, regulations, or procedures which could be altered in a way to reduce the DEP workload and yet continue to accomplish the environmental protection goal of the relevant law.\u00a0 The effort was driven by recognizing that its budget has shrunk over the past several years and that it is time for DEP to \u201clive within its means.\u201d\u00a0 Again, I congratulate DEP on taking this initiative and to see it through to its March 5 Final Action Plan.<\/p>\n
On a separate – but somewhat parallel track – the Legislature has focused on the need for \u201cregulatory reform\u201d to reduce any unnecessary burdens on business, in particular small business. \u00a0In Sections 65 \u2013 71 of Chapter 240 of the Acts of 2010 the Legislature amended Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A to require state agencies to identify and reduce (to the extent possible) burdens on business and small business arising from regulations. \u00a0As part of this mandated effort each agency is required under M.G.L. c. 30A, \u00a7 5A to review its regulations which have been in existence for at least 12 years to \u201cminimize economic impact of the rule or regulation on small businesses.\u201d \u00a0As part of that process each state agency is required to review the \u201ccontinuing need for the rule or regulation\u201d; \u201cthe nature of complaints or comments received\u201d; \u201cthe extent to which the rule or regulation overlaps, duplicates or conflicts with other regulations\u201d; \u201cthe length of time since the rule or regulation has been enacted\u201d; and \u201cthe degree to which technology, economic conditions or other factors have changed in the subject areas affected by the rule or regulation.\u201d \u00a0This is a far more expansive review of regulations than was undertaken by DEP to produce its Final Plan. \u00a0The Final Plan was focused only on internal impacts with an orientation to alter regulations if it would reduce the burden on DEP staff and resources. \u00a0The mandated inquiry under the amended Chapter 30A requires an external review of the impacts on the regulated community.\u00a0 They are two different scopes with, frankly, not much in common.<\/p>\n
I raise this point because, troublingly, the Massachusetts DEP Final Action Plan recites that the Plan \u201caddresses the agency’s obligations under\u201d M.G.L. c. 30A \u00a7 5A (described above). \u00a0This statement is not accurate and disappointing. Perhaps in the excitement of completing the project DEP lost focus for a moment. Let’s hope that they can be reminded to refocus and undertake the examination that the Legislature required by amending chapter 30A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection released its Final Action Plan for Regulatory Reform at Mass DEP on March 5, 2012. DEP should be congratulated for its leadership in state government with regard to simplifying its regulations. That said, DEP has \u201cover sold\u201d or \u201cover advertised\u201d its effort.\u00a0 I was a member of the Regulatory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n