The drive for "regulatory reform" is now in its ascendency as a dominant influence on federal regulatory policy. At the Environmental Protection Agency in particular, regulators have become increasingly sensitive to the adverse economic impacts of its rules, and a similar trend is evident throughout the executive branch.¹ Currently pending before Congress are a number of bills designed to afford "regulatory relief."² And the courts, though less subject to shifting political winds, have been brought directly into the fray.³

Among the most dramatic reforms in government are the recently completed or pending alterations in the process of licensing nuclear power reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has, within the last year, made relatively major modification to its rules of practice and has proposed even more sweeping changes. Of equal if not greater significance are several pieces of legislation now under active consideration by Congress. These proposals include various means of expediting the licensing process, usually at the expense of citizen intervenors. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court recently granted the government's request that it review a controversial decision by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals,⁴ which had the effect of requiring the NRC to hold adjudicatory hearings on a large number of minor license amendments which formerly would only have been noticed in the Federal Register. By this time next year, the NRC's licensing rules should be far more streamlined than is the case today.