This week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans for a massive deregulatory effort to revise dozens of environmental regulations - promising to drive “a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion.” Zeldin has framed these efforts as “the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history,” promising lower energy costs and boost jobs in the automobile industry. The Agency hasn’t provided details about what it wants to do with the targeted regulations — whether it will try to weaken them or eliminate them entirely.
Arguably the most controversial action is the Administration’s plan to “reconsider” (although the action will likely be to withdraw the finding rather than amend it) the EPA’s 2009 conclusion that carbon dioxide pollution endangers human health and welfare and is warming the earth – known as the “endangerment finding.” The endangerment finding is the foundation upon which modern climate protection rules are based. Withdrawal would be a monumental shift for U.S. environmental policy, even for the Trump Administration, which ignored proposals to overturn the finding in his first term. Advisors now view eliminating the finding as a way to quickly ramp up fossil fuel production.
EPA also plans to revise the Waters of the United States (or WOTUS) rule – a Biden-era regulation determining which streams and wetlands are subject to Clean Water Act protections. Revising WOTUS interpretations to more closely follow the guidance outlined in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency has been a top priority for the GOP in recent years.
The EPA also announced that it would release guidance to revise the PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) – drawing some praise from states who have had difficulty complying with the standard due to its rigidity and difficulty in pursuing “exceptional events” waivers, particularly due to emissions caused by wildfires and controlled burns. This would dovetail with another proposed action to reconsider the exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans.
Some of the other proposed rollbacks include:
Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0)
Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Program
Reconsideration of Technology Transition rule
Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs)
Terminating Environmental Justice and DEI offices at EPA
Deregulation at the scale proposed by the Administration would significantly alter the U.S.’s position as a leader on climate policy. To say that the announcement has drawn sharp criticism from congressional Democrats and climate groups would be an understatement. But aside from legal challenges, options for meaningful intervention, even by concerned Republicans, are limited given the nature of regulatory action and the importance (and repeated campaign mentions) of deregulation to Trump personally.
While reforming federal environmental regulations requires a rulemaking process that typically takes several years, it’s clear the Trump Administration plans to move quickly. Concerned stakeholders should coordinate participation in comment periods and work with policymakers to develop a unified message.
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