Clean power plan: Last year, the Obama administration completed rules requiring the nation's power plants to cut, by 2030, emissions of greenhouse gases by 32 percent from 2005 levels. The rules were a central piece of the global effort to confront climate change. But a fierce legal challenge stalled the rules, which are headed to the Supreme Court.
Fuel efficiency standards: In 2012, the administration finished rules to require cars and light trucks to get, on average, nearly 55 miles per gallon by 2025. The rules survived a legal challenge.
Same-sex hospital visitation: After reading about a lesbian social worker who had been kept from the hospital bedside of her partner, Obama issued an order in 2010 directing the creation of regulations to allow such visits. By the next year, new rules required all hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to allow patients to designate visitors.
Passenger bill of rights: After a series of highly publicized cases in which airplane passengers were stranded for hours on the tarmac, the Obama administration in 2009 finished rules requiring airlines to return their planes to the gates within three hours or face steep fines.
Rearview cameras: In 2008, Congress passed a measure mandating that all cars have rearview cameras. For years, regulators and the industry balked, but in 2014, the Obama administration completed the rules, which require backup cameras in cars and light trucks by 2018.
Federal workers: In a series of regulatory changes, Obama sought to improve the pay and benefits for federal workers and contractors. In 2014, he signed an executive order increasing the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 per hour from $7.25. The next year, he issued rules requiring up to seven days of paid sick leave for federal contractors. This year, he increased the number of workers eligible for overtime.
Net neutrality: In early 2015, the Federal Communications Commission, at Obama's urging, issued rules that would regulate internet companies as utilities. This year, a federal court upheld the administration's rules, but the fight is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.
Conflict-of-interest rule: A regulation completed this year requires financial advisers and brokers to act in the best interests of their clients. Wall Street firms and the insurance industry oppose the new rules, and they are likely to continue fighting them in court.
Home health aides: The Obama administration imposed rules requiring overtime and minimum wage protections for home health care workers. Opponents of the changes filed suit, and won an initial legal victory. But last summer, a federal appeals court reinstated the rules.
Drones: The Obama administration issued new regulations in June outlining where and when the devices can be flown. The rules ban their operation close to airports and require pilots to have passed a written test. Business officials hailed the rules as clearing the way for broader use of drones by companies, but privacy advocates objected.
