The business community usually abhors federal regulation, but there is a new kind that many industries are embracing, reports the Los Angeles Times. In a series of apparently unrelated rules changes from various agencies, new regulations have been written to include protection from lawsuits.

The examples the paper cites are:
Suits for auto roof failures have been outlawed.
The Justice Department went to court to overturn a series of tough air pollution requirements in Southern California.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency killed some California disclosure laws by arguing that national banks could only be regulated by the federal government.
And the FDA says warning labels will be enough to protect drug makers from most lawsuits.

"By embedding similar protections for businesses in regulatory changes, the administration has advanced Bush's repeated pledge to rein in what he calls junk lawsuits," the paper reports. Just last week, a mattress standard set by the Federal Trade Commission also barred lawsuits against manufacturers who comply.

This could be good news if the regulations truly protect consumers. Lawsuits are a grossly inefficient way of ensuring consumer protection.

It won't work, though, if the safety standards are not effective and lawsuits are barred. And we need to know that the EPA, the FTC, the FDA and others charged with writing safety rules do so honestly and without outside pressure from industry. Oh, just call me naive.