Federal Regulatory Trackers

As part of their compliance efforts, local governments may be interested in tracking and, in some cases, commenting on proposed regulations as they progress through the rulemaking process. Several government and non-governmental entities maintain online tracking tools that monitor federal regulatory developments. To date, there are no regulatory trackers specifically dedicated to local government environmental compliance. The broader regulatory trackers listed below, however, can help local governments and other users identify and retrieve rules that pertain to environmental compliance.

More generally, updates on proposed and new federal environmental regulations that affect local governments are available via the resources listed on the LGEAN News and Events tab.

The following regulatory trackers are categorized by their focus and scope; they are categorized as "Comprehensive," "Environment Specific," or "Other." Each of the trackers below has its own format with distinct search function capabilities. Some hyperlinks connect to prefilled searches—be sure to check and adjust filters as necessary.

Regulatory Trackers—Comprehensive

• Federal Register
  • Catalogs on a daily basis proposed and adopted administrative rules, notices, executive orders, and other Presidential documents.
  • Tips:
    • Filter results to retrieve entries that affect local governments by selecting "Small Entities Affected" and "governmental jurisdictions."
    • To view all rulemaking developments related to a specific environmental topic, navigate to the "Sections" tab in the upper menu and select "Environment," and a subcategory (e.g., Toxic Substances Control).
    • For more information on how to use the Federal Register, click here.
• Justia Tracker
  • Enables users to search the Federal Register with alternative and more specific search filters, such as browsing by regulations filed within a certain date range.
• Regulations.gov Tracker and Comment Platform
  • Provides opportunity to comment on regulatory issues and to access comments filed by the public and organizations. To comment on a proposed rule, navigate to the "Comment" tab in the upper menu and enter a keyword, title, or document ID.
  • Tips:
    • To access documents (such as proposed rules, final rules, and Federal Register notices) that contain regulatory information that could affect local governments, select "refine results" and check the box "Governmental Jurisdictions."
    • For more information on how to use Regulations.gov, click here.

Regulatory Trackers—Environment Specific

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Federal Register Subsite
  • Presents a curated list from the Federal Register of: "documents on public inspection" that are pending publication; documents designated as "significant"; and "recently published" documents.
• Harvard Law School ernvironmental & Energy Program Regulatory Tracker
  • Tracks steps taken regarding clean energy deployment and environmental protection. The Harvard Law tracker provides up-to-date and concise summary of both regulatory and litigation actions.
  • Tracker provides current status, consequences, and history of each rulemaking.

Regulatory Tracker—Other

• Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets Regulatory Tracker ("Reg Tracker")
  • Tracks federal policy changes proposed or enacted under the Trump administration considered particularly impactful.
  • Each policy included includes background information and a description of its impact.
  • For more information on how to use the Reg Tracker, click here.