Any assumption that the environmental lobby has been fighting an uphill battle to implement important regulations belies the facts, a new study has found. In fact, environmental regulations have grown at an exponential pace, and their cost to the federal government is second only to that of homeland security regulations.

The report, by the think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the federal government spent $6 billion in 2006 on the development and implementation of environmental regulations and the effort to ensure compliance, an increase of 7,372% since 1960. Environmental spending has grown more than three times faster than homeland security spending, which increased 2,089% in the same period, to $15 billion, according to federal budgetary data.

“Environmental policies are unchecked and growing,” the director of risk and environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Angela Logomasini, the author of the report, said.

Between 1973 and 2004, there were more environmental laws passed — 1,163 — than any other type. The most active years for new legislation were 1987-88, during the Reagan administration, and 1999-2000, when Congress was Republican.

“The data show that during the 1980s and 1990s, Congress produced a steady stream of environmental public laws,” Ms. Logomasini wrote in the report. “This result contradicts claims that the 1990s represented an age of gridlock because of challenges from the Right.”

Many of the environmental laws require federal agencies to issue regulations on an ongoing basis, with the result that these laws often expand their reach without the need for any new legislative action.

For example, every year more animals are added under the Endangered Species Act, allowing the federal government to take control of land where these animals reside. “In this way, they can heavily regulate against logging, mining, even the laying of electricity lines,” Ms. Logomasini said. “The environmental lobby prevents any reform to these laws, thereby securing an ever-growing environmentally regulated state.”

The costs of these laws are hard to determine because they include losses to property owners, the opportunity cost of infrastructure such as highways, and other limitations, she added.

“Environmental advocates have an ongoing impact on society as long as they can prevent substantial reversals” of current laws, she wrote. The environmental regulatory state “consists of dozens of extensive regulatory statutes, thousands of pages of regulations, numerous government agencies continually passing new rules, and a legal system that allows activists to enforce, if not expand, their regime.”

The increase in environmental legislation is reflected in federal staffing levels. There has been more growth at environmental agencies than in any other area, with staff increasing 2,078%, to 26,788, in 2006 from 1,230 in 1960. Only staffing at energy agencies saw a more drastic surge, and “it is worth noting that most energy regulations are environmental in nature,” Ms. Logomasini wrote in the report. In comparison, staff increases at other agencies fall far below, with homeland security up 573% and banking and finance up 350% during the same period.

The enormity of these environmental regulations has a significant impact on small businesses, the report found. On a per-employee basis, environmental regulations made up 43% of the overall regulatory costs to small businesses in 2004, totaling $221 billion, or $1,249 for each employee. At companies with fewer than 20 employees, the price tag rose to $3,296 for each worker. This data was taken from the federal Small Business Administration.

“Because more than 99% of U.S. firms are categorized as small, this impact has widespread effects on the lives of Americans — not only as small business owners but also as consumers who feel the impacts as cost increases and workers who suffer from any impacts on the economy,” Ms. Logomasini wrote. In addition, the cost of compliance with environmental regulations costs small businesses 364% more than large firms.