Thanks to Gov. Walker's Executive Order 61, which asks each state agencies to conduct a thorough review of its regulations and recommend for possible elimination or modification outdated and overly cumbersome regulations, Wisconsin's Administrative Code is undergoing its first comprehensive review in a long time. At the federal level, a similar project is under way, and it has sparked an interesting commentary from Prof. Cary Coglianese of the University of Pennsylvania, who wonders, "Is Flexible Regulation an Oxymoron?"

The Obama administration has extended the deadline for setting a final rule on cooling water structures for industrial facilities to July 27, 2013. The rule, which is part of the Clean Water Act, seeks to design and locate the structures used to take in water for cooling water reservoirs at industrial facilities in a way that minimizes environmental consequences, specifically harm to aquatic life that may be pulled into the system or crushed against the water intake.

An environmental group is trying to stop development of a high-rise apartment building in Milwaukee because the group alleges the site is located on former Lake Michigan lakebed, and therefore subject to the Wisconsin Constitution’s public trust doctrine.

The Washington Post is reporting that the White House forced the EPA to propose a slightly weaker standard for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) than the agency originally wanted.