Hedge fund rules, cigarette warning labels, climate change in the Supreme Court, and more.
- Austan Goolsbee, Chief economist for the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, issued a statement explaining the Administration’s approach to smarter regulation.
- The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing on proposals to reform the federal regulatory process.
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the comment period by 30 days for its proposed rule regulating mercury and toxic emissions from power plants. Lawmakers had asked the agency to give companies more time to respond to the proposed standards. See related The Regulatory Review essay.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted rules that extend registration and reporting requirements to hedge fund and other private fund advisors that had been previously exempt from these requirements.
- The U.S. Supreme Court rejected federal nuisance lawsuits filed against power companies for harms from climate change, holding in American Electric Power Co. v Connecticut that the EPA’s authority to regulated greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act displaced federal common law claims over climate change.
- In an effort to deter smoking and educate the public, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled new graphic warning labels for cigarettes.
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is seeking public comment on a program under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that may permit more self-regulation of website and online service operators.
- In a letter to Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) administrator Cass Sunstein, House Republicans inquired into the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) response to President Obama’s executive order on reviewing regulations. See related The Regulatory Review essay.
- To improve auditing of broker-dealer control of customer securities and cash, the SEC requested comments on proposed amendments to the agency’s broker-dealer financial reporting rule.
- J.P. Morgan will pay $154 million to the SEC to settle allegations it misled investors in a mortgage-based synthetic CDO. The charge resembled the SEC’s securities fraud action against Goldman Sachs in 2007, which settled for $550 million.
