New regs for Friday: Discrimination, efficiency, emissions

Friday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new discrimination rules for apprenticeship programs, efficiency standards for building construction and emissions rules for engines.

Here’s what is happening:

Discrimination: The Department of Labor is moving forward with new equal opportunity regulations for registered apprenticeship programs.

Apprenticeship programs would be prohibited from discriminating against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, age or a disability. Federal regulations already protect people in apprenticeship programs from discrimination on the basis on race, gender or religion.

The public has 60 days to comment.

Small business: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is proposing new verification requirements for veteran-owned small businesses.

The VA is looking to root out fraudulent small business owners who claim to be veterans while making sure the process is not too complicated for actual veterans to comply with.

The public has 60 days to comment.

Efficiency: The Department of Energy is moving forward with new efficiency standards for the construction of certain buildings.

The Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy issued new construction standards Thursday for federal buildings as well as multi-family high-rise residential buildings.

The construction standards will mirror existing industry standards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

The rules go into effect in 60 days.

Emissions: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing new standards stationary compression ignition internal combustion engines.

The proposed standards would allow engine operators to override the emission control system in emergency situation “to protect human life.”

The public has 45 days to comment.