To nobody’s surprise, it is already evident that President Trump’s second term will mark a significant shift in environmental regulation and policy from the Biden Administration. This article marks the first in a where we will highlight and analyze some of the Trump Administration’s early initiatives regarding environmental law and regulation as well as what can be expected going forward for and from the EPA, environmental law, and the regulated community.
Our review will be informed by the second Trump Administration’s early actions, a review of Trump’s first term, his campaign statements, the personnel he has nominated for key posts, and independent policy documents from influential Think Tanks.
During his first term the Trump Administration rolled back or retooled in a manner that effectively weakened over 100 environmental rules and regulations. While environmental policy was not a focal point of Trump’s 2024 election campaign, candidate Trump frequently stated that boosting fossil fuel production and reducing or streamlining environmental regulations in support of its stated goals of increasing economic efficiency would be key initiatives for his second administration. These goals also feature prominently in the positions of influential conservative policy papers such as Project 2025, a policy initiative first published in April 2023 by the conservative Think Tank The Heritage Foundation; and President Trump has already tapped Aaron Szabo, who helped to write the EPA chapter of Project 2025, to lead the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
The initial round of executive orders issued by the second Trump Administration show a dramatic but expected change in approach to environmental regulation: the Trump Administration again withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and rescinded many of President Biden’s executive orders on energy and climate change. Another executive order declared an “energy emergency” and prioritized the approval and generation of domestic energy resources, excluding wind and solar, and described using emergency powers to expedite environmental review and permitting processes.
Forthcoming early action items are likely to fit with the broader Trump Administration goals for the EPA to reduce the EPA’s costs and staffing, increase reliance on states for environmental enforcement and regulation by taking a more supportive role, and continuing to support fossil fuel development over renewable energy development. We can also expect actions by the EPA to identify existing rules to be stayed as well as reviewing employees and staffing objectives while looking for opportunities to downsize to further these aims.
It is also likely that from the outset Trump’s EPA will look to reassess many of the EPA’s and DOJ’s current environmental enforcement cases. A report by the Environmental Integrity Project tracking the EPA’s enforcement actions since 2001 predicts that the expected drop in funding and staffing at the EPA, coupled with the new administration’s stated policy goals, will lead to a significant reduction in the EPA’s enforcement. This is consistent with the trajectory from Trump’s first term, where the EPA continued a trend of reducing the EPA’s enforcement actions. It is likely that Trump’s EPA will seek to prioritize cooperation with the regulated community and focus on compliance rather than enforcement, which was the strategy adopted during President Trump’s first term and outlined to be taken up again in Project 2025. Taken together, there are strong indicators that the incoming Trump Administration will look to stay ongoing enforcement cases, delay others, and limit future federal enforcement efforts.
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