You may have something there.
However, I suggest we pull down the blinds, ArGee, and herd the children, the faint of heart, and French* out of the room, and listen to old Uncle Scoutmaster weave a horror tale of the enormity of Federal Government bloat.
You speak of the Federal Regulations. To any attorney; a lawyer; scum-sucking bottom dweller, or protector of our freedoms, or believer in the Constitution, "Federal Regulations" probably has two meanings.
First, the general "oh, those darn Federal Regulations," a no-specific catch-all phrase for the way the Federal government appears to believe it knows more about everything that any of us.
However, "Federal Regulations" also specifically means the regulations contained in a set of books titled the Code of Federal Regulations - the regulations enacted to further those laws enacted by Congress and signed into law by the President.
Are we still awake?
Here's what copies of the Code of Federal Regulations look like:
These things are found on the shelves of law firms, law libraries, public libraries, courthouses, and my pain management doctor's office - and people are frequently familiar with them. There are fifty Titles and a total (I believe, at 1:20 a.m. on 13 May 2015, 238 volumes).
I spent my life in Title 42: Public Health.
¿Scary? ¿Enough to provide energy? Certainly, but if we're going to have enough energy to make enough clothing to outfit Kardashians, then we're going to need a bigger boat need more paper.
Enter the Federal Register.
It's essentially the Daily Newspaper of those who would govern our lives through regulation. It's published daily, M-F, and has been since Darksheare had never tasted coffee.
You want paper to burn for energy? The smart money is on the daily Federal Register. That baby looks like this:
Whenever a new regulation is promulgated, it's announced, full-test, in the Federal Register - along with information about why it is being promulgated, the steps leading up to it being promulgated, previous trial promulgations, how the final version answers any questions that those in the know asked about the regulations while it was be worked upon in dark rooms, who the people were who worked on the regulation, Ernie Banks' batting average in 1964, and, frequently a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG explanation by the issuing agency of what the promulgated regulation means and how the issuing agency is going to interpret it.
You may read the Federal Register for any date after digitization existed by clicking here..
To scare dogs and children, look at the number of pages in some of the single daily issues of the Federal Register during the Obama administration's Hissy Fit during the last three weeks of 2014. Many days, the Federal Register was 400+ pages long instead of the 'average' 180-230.
I'll wager that, for ever actual word of true regulation, ten words of 'it ain't a regulation but we're publishing it as an introduction, legalese, table of contents, paperwork reduction act recitation, etc.
In the area of law in which I practiced - healthcare fraud and abuse - I once calculated that less than 20% of any Federal Register publication on a healthcare fraud and abuse regulation would eventually be printed in the Code of Federal Regulation.
In one prime case - a watershed regulation issued in the early 1990s - I believe the Federal Register publication was over 230 pages long, and the regulations were not quite 26 pages long.
So ... and I rambled ... If we're going to burn anything to provide energy after the collapse of an economy: while hoi polloi tramble each other rushing for the shelves of federal regulations (the Code of Federal Regulations), I say you and I should pack a light lunch and stroll to the basement, where back issues of the Federal Register are kept.
I'll bring the chicken salad and special Scoutmaster cole slaw if you bring the guacamole and limeade.
We may invite others and even let them borrow our wheelbarrow if they offer to bring something tasty to the after-sacking picnic.
What say ye?
Oh.
And burning rolled up newspaper and books doesn't give off much heat. It may take Fahrenheit 451 to burn the books, but I was around burning books once and it had a chilling affect on my, an actual, physical, chilling effect, instead of putting off heat. That may be true even if the book contains regulations printed strait from the presses of hades.