President Barack Obama’s administration said today that it will eliminate or rewrite hundreds of regulations to save businesses and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year, the first fruits of a review process announced in January, The New York Times reported.

Cass Sunstein, the Harvard University law professor hired by Obama to improve the regulatory process, highlighted some of the results of the review so far. One example he cited was the repeal of a rule classifying milk as a kind of oil, which required dairy farmers to handle their product with special care. That change by the Environmental Protection Agency will save an estimated $140 million a year, he said.

“Large benefits can come from seemingly modest small steps,” Sunstein said.

Sunstein said costs imposed on businesses by the government are ultimately passed on to their shareholders, employees and customers.

Other examples include measure such as no longer requiring gasoline dealers to install pollution filters because vehicles are built with similar technology, and removing language from Treasury Department regulations that refers to Yugoslavia, which no longer exists.

The results of preliminary reviews by 30 federal agencies, ranging from the Defense Department to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, were released today and posted online at www.whitehouse.gov/regulatoryreform. The documents invite public comment.