On October 13, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the creation of a sub-group with the Environmental Protection Agency to address infrastructure issues for America's water systems. Other agencies...more
Recent court decisions have stymied the Trump Administration’s determination to accelerate permit approvals for oil and gas infrastructure projects, a policy focus since it came into office. Its tools have essentially been...more
On January 8, 2020, the Trump Administration proposed streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations for evaluation of the environmental impacts of major projects, in part by removing the existing...more
The Trump Administration, which reversed course from the Obama Administration on the CAFE rules for automobile manufacturers and announced it would freeze the fleet mileage standards at 2020 levels, apparently will not...more
On July 25, 2019, four major domestic and foreign automakers announced an agreement had been reached with the State of California on a voluntary framework reducing emissions from autos through, inter alia, increased mileage...more
Many in the Trump Administration and on the federal bench have long railed against "Chevron deference" as the devil’s tool to expand the federal administrative bureaucracy at the expense of the legislature....more
This post is not about repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, which has been botched since the Act was first passed, despite Republican control of the Presidency and both the House and Senate for the last two...more
In the continuing a series of Trump deregulation failures, a federal judge in the Northern District of California rejected in harsh terms an effort by the Department of the Interior (DOI) to replace the Valuation Rule for...more
Federal courts often rely on “Chevron deference” in upholding regulations issued pursuant to vague congressional authorization. This doctrine dictates that where the statutory language is unclear, a court will defer to a...more
On August 17, the day after a federal judge in South Carolina invalidated the Trump administration’s suspension of the rule defining “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act, a panel on the D.C. Circuit...more
On August 2, 2018, after many months of public rhetoric from the administration and the states, EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought comment on a joint proposal to modify the Corporate Average...more
On Monday, July 24, 2018, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a memorandum prohibiting BLM from requiring “compensatory mitigation” projects, except where specifically mandated by the Federal Land Policy and Management...more
The Trump Administration has taken the position that the President not only has the power under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to unilaterally establish national monuments, but also the unfettered authority to reduce in size or...more
On Thursday, January 4, 2018, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced a proposal to open 25 of its 26 offshore planning areas for leasing for oil and gas drilling, reversing an Obama Administration drilling plan that...more
On December 11, 2017, the NY Times’ headline read: Under Trump, E.P.A. Has Slowed Actions Against Polluters, and Put Limits on Enforcement Officers. The article reviews EPA enforcement during the first nine months of the...more
As noted in this space, on October 16, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a memorandum announcing new policies to avoid what he considered inappropriate approaches to resolving litigation, commonly referred to by the...more
As noted previously on this blog, on October 16, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a memorandum announcing new policies to avoid what he considered inappropriate approaches to resolving litigation, commonly referred...more
On October 16, 2017, EPA Administrator Pruitt issued a memo to his agency directing that managers take certain steps to curtail the practice known as “sue and settle.” This practice most often is used for relatively quick...more
On October 4, the district court for the Northern District of California in State of California and Sierra Club, et al v. BLM, et al. held that BLM could not postpone its enforcement of various provisions of the Obama-era...more
EPA has proposed to end its funding of Superfund enforcement activities by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). In its proposed budget for FY 2018, EPA has cut the nearly $26MM...more
We have strange bedfellows, as business groups, states and environmentalists maneuver before the Supreme Court over the Obama Administration regulation defining “waters of the US” (“WOTUS”) under the Clean Water Act (CWA)....more
The most active agency in carrying out the Trump agenda in its first year has been the EPA, where there has been a raft of efforts to roll back the regulatory initiatives of the Obama Administration. However, in one area the...more
On August 15, 2017, President Trump issued yet another executive order (EO) intended to speed environmental review of infrastructure projects. His first executive order with that objective, issued January 24, 2017, was devoid...more
On May 22, 2017, EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, convened a Superfund Group to examine the existing Superfund process and make recommendations to streamline the process and incentivize parties to accelerate remediation and...more