Corruptisima Republica Plurimae Leges

As David Martosko notes, translated from the Latin, the title of this post means ”The more corrupt the state, the more plentiful its laws." (H/T to Curmudgeonly & Skeptical for the link)

Laws are like technology. Over time, they become one of two things: indispensable or obsolete. It’s beyond me why most state and federal laws don’t have 15- or 20-year sunset clauses, so we could periodically dispense with the obsolete ones like so many floppy disc drives and 8-track tape decks.

For the record, Texas has a Sunset Commission that does just that, albeit on a limited basis. Still, it's a start. Now if we could just elect congresscritters with enough common sense and backbone to implement a similar panel on a national level we might have a fighting chance. Better yet, pass legislation stating that all laws passed by congress expire in three years unless they are specifically and individually extended.

In 1925 it would have taken you 12 days to read all the United States’ federal laws and regulations if you plowed through about 200 pages per day. Today that same task would take you three years.

obamacare and the Dodd-Frank bill alone account for 5000 of the new pages.

That's just at the federal level. At the state level there are approximately 40,000 new laws. Most of them are unnecessary, of course, but since when did that ever stop politicians from passing something to make some potential campaign contributor or voter happy. For example, one of California's new state laws prohibits the awarding of goldfish as a carnival prize. I'm sure goldfish and goldfish lovers across the state are sleeping easier tonight.

Of course, with all those new laws and regulations there's plenty of room for conflict and overlap. Case in point:

New environmental regulations, coming amid warnings that Texas might not meet its electricity needs next summer, could set up a legal dilemma for regulators, grid operators and generators.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which takes effect Sunday, requires plants in 28 states including Texas to cut smog- and soot-forming emissions that cross state lines.

... power plant operators and their political supporters say the rule will force shutdowns of power plants needed to keep U.S. grid capacity safely above demand.

Here in Texas, at least one utility - Dallas based Luminant Generation Co. - will shut down two coal-fired generating units to comply with the EPA rule. Other state utilities are considering similar moves. As a result, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state's main electric grid, has projected power reserves will fall below its desired minimum next year.

So we have an agency of the federal government creating regulations - not legislation passed by our elected representatives, but rules thought up by bureaucrats to justify their existence - that will shut down existing power plants, eliminate jobs, and cause rolling blackouts throughout the state in the foreseeable future.

But just when you think all is lost, here comes a knight in shining armor riding to the rescue.

Another federal agency, the Energy Department, says it has the legal authority to require power plants to maintain grid reliability.

If you see a dilemma here - one agency saying stop, another saying go - you're not alone.

U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said generating companies could be in an untenable position if the department orders operation of plants idled because of EPA rules: By complying with one of the federal agencies, they may defy the other one.

He cited incidents over the past decade in California and Virginia, where Mirant Corp., now GenOn Energy Inc., was ordered to run generating units for reliability purposes, but faced legal action for environmental violations.

“It's not fair, when these companies do exactly what regulators ask them to do — keep the lights on — and then they're penalized for it,” Olson said in an interview.

Gina McCarthy, an EPA assistant administrator, said the Clean Air Act, which authorizes the cross-state rule, never has caused reliability problems and has mechanisms to prevent local reliability issues.

But EPA permission didn't protect Mirant from lawsuits when it faced conflicting federal mandates, GenOn lawyer Debra Raggio told federal energy regulators in a memo last month.

Gee, confusion and lies misleading information from federal agencies.

What a surprise...