The Environmental Protection Agency's two-year-old effort to reinvent environmental regulation has reduced the time businesses spend complying with rules by 16 million hours, or 400,000 work weeks, according to a report released by the agency this week.
The report summarizes the EPA's efforts to meet the goals of "common-sense" measures and greater flexibility, set by the Clinton administration in 1995. For example, under the Common Sense Initiative, the EPA is developing new, industry-specific approaches to regulation as an alternative to the earlier pollutant-specific approach.
In its report, the agency also touts its success in streamlining pesticide regulations, involving stakeholders in the reinvention effort, revamping and building its Internet site, and developing a method to allow the comparison of environmental-performance data among facilities.
The report can be accessed on the Internet at www.epa.gov/reinvent.
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