Many SDOs already provide free access.
Bremer 15 – Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, J.D. from New York University.
Emily S. Bremer, “On the Cost of Private Standards in Public Law,” Kansas Law Review, https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/20310/5-Bremer_FinalPDFSheridan.pdf?sequence=1
There is good reason to believe that this collaborative approach can succeed. Many standards developers already provide free access to their standards, and there appears to be momentum building in that direction. ASTM’s recent decision to create an online library of all its incorporated standards is a highly significant development. As the largest standards developer in the United States, this decision affects nearly one quarter of the incorporations by reference in the CFR. ANSI also recently launched a centralized online library that allows standards developers to provide free read-only access to their incorporated standards even if they lack the resources to develop the necessary technological infrastructure themselves.275 Finally, it is notable that PHMSA’s success in implementing Section 24 was achieved only through collaboration with its standards developers. Other agencies can do the same—and without being forced into the kind of quandary created by Section 24.