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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--"Aim High" is the motto of the U.S. Air Force. It also fairly characterizes 31 separate actions announced this week by Lee Zeldin, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that, collectively, seek to fundamentally reorient American energy and environmental regulations that were implemented by President Donald Trump's two Democratic predecessors, President Barrack Obama and President Joe Biden.
In a March 12 statement, Zeldin hailed the 31 actions as "the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more." He invoked "common sense" several times in his announcements.
The measures are designed to implement Trump's "energy dominance" agenda and "power the Great American Comeback," he added. The announcements were accompanied by a bylined opinion article from Zeldin in The Wall Street Journal that ran the same day the initiatives were announced. The administrator also is scheduled to address the CERAWeek conference in Houston today, where he presumably will underscore the necessity of these steps before a large and friendly crowd of energy leaders.
Despite the fact that the U.S. is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, Trump and his EPA administrator feel even greater levels of production are needed. In recent months, rumors have swirled that the administration is informally seeking production growth of about 3 million barrels per day, despite the current oversupply that has weighed on prices.
The EPA statement grouped several initiatives under the heading of "Unleashing American Energy," including:
Also, Trump is a longtime foe of electric vehicles (EVs), an aversion that does not appear to apply to Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk or his vehicles, and has vowed to claw back unspent federal funds supporting EV ownership that were contained in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
These 31 announcements won't become law any time soon. Their March 12 release was the first step in the lengthy and arduous path of withdrawing and replacing already-finalized rules according to the process set forth in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), an eight-decade old federal statute governing how the federal government makes rules and regulations.
The APA provided a process that government agencies must follow when they seek to issue a new rule or withdraw or modify finalized rules: Gather the relevant scientific or technical data supporting a rule change; issue a new draft rule along with an explanation of why the change is needed; allow the public to comment on the new draft rule; and finalize the rule.
Trump 2.0 is expected to pay closer attention to the procedural requirements of the APA as it seeks to reorient U.S. energy and environmental regulation. Several initiatives issued during Trump 1.0 were rejected by the courts because they did not follow the process laid out in the APA.
These initiatives are expected to impose significant, even unprecedented, scientific and technical demands on the EPA's in-house experts. Given the administration's stated goal of slashing the EPA staff 65%, it is unclear how the foundational scientific work will be performed.
Many, if not most or all, of the draft rules referenced in the EPA's March 12 press release are expected to draw spirited legal challenges. Ultimately, their fate may rest with the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Numerous GOP officials and business leaders touted the moves.
In a statement, Jay Timmons, president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers, said, "President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have answered the calls of manufacturers across the country to rebalance and reconsider burdensome federal regulations harming America's ability to compete."
Marty Durbin, a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said: "American businesses were crippled with an unprecedented regulatory onslaught during the previous administration that contributed to higher costs felt by families around the country. The chamber supports a more balanced regulatory approach that will protect the environment and support greater economic growth."
Coal company officials also praised the effort. "The (CO2 emission) standard is so extreme that it's virtually impossible to comply with," Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of the coal supplier XCoal Energy and Resources (Latrobe, Pennsylvania), told The Washington Post. The Biden administration's clean power plan, which is currently mired in litigation, would have pushed all coal plants by 2039 to either capture their carbon dioxide emissions or shut down.
As popular as the EPA moves were for Republicans and some affected business leaders, the agency's efforts likely will encounter a buzzsaw of legal opposition, including from organizations that have successfully challenged prior Trump energy and environmental rules in the federal courts.
According to an article in The New York Times, Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate change and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said repealing or weakening regulations on automobiles, power plants and more would lead to increases in asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. "At a time when millions of Americans are trying to rebuild after horrific wildfires and climate-fueled hurricanes, it's nonsensical to try to deny that climate change harms our health and welfare."
The Times' coverage also quoted Jonathan H. Adler, a conservative legal expert and professor of environmental law at Case Western Reserve University, as predicting the Trump administration would not succeed in its efforts to rewrite so much foundational energy and environmental regulation.
Speaking only about efforts to change the EPA's "endangerment" finding, Adler said, "You've got to explain away decades of statements by every administration that there are negative consequences of climate change that can be reasonably anticipated." Efforts to unravel that finding was "a good way to waste years of time and effort and accomplish nothing."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
In a March 12 statement, Zeldin hailed the 31 actions as "the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more." He invoked "common sense" several times in his announcements.
The measures are designed to implement Trump's "energy dominance" agenda and "power the Great American Comeback," he added. The announcements were accompanied by a bylined opinion article from Zeldin in The Wall Street Journal that ran the same day the initiatives were announced. The administrator also is scheduled to address the CERAWeek conference in Houston today, where he presumably will underscore the necessity of these steps before a large and friendly crowd of energy leaders.
Despite the fact that the U.S. is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, Trump and his EPA administrator feel even greater levels of production are needed. In recent months, rumors have swirled that the administration is informally seeking production growth of about 3 million barrels per day, despite the current oversupply that has weighed on prices.
The EPA statement grouped several initiatives under the heading of "Unleashing American Energy," including:
- Reconsideration of regulations on power plants
- Reconsideration of regulations "throttling" the oil and gas industry
- Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that "improperly targeted" coal-fired power plants
- Reconsideration of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program "that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply"
- Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards for the steam electric power generating industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources
- Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for coal power plants "to help unleash American energy"
- Reconsideration of the Biden-Harris administration risk management program rule "that made America's oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe"
- Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris "electric vehicle mandate"
- Reconsideration of the 2009 "endangerment finding" and regulations and actions that rely on that finding; the finding was made by the EPA in 2009, in which the agency said that CO2 emissions from industrial facilities, power plants and automobiles posed a threat to human health.
- Reconsideration of the technology transition rule "that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing"
- Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that "shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses"
- Reconsideration of multiple national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for U.S. energy and manufacturing sectors
- Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that "threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families"
- Overhauling Biden-Harris administration's "Social Cost of Carbon"
- Redirecting enforcement resources to the EPA's "core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers"
- Terminating President Joe Biden's Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the EPA
- Ending so-called "Good Neighbor Plan" which the Biden-Harris administration used to "expand federal rules to more states and sectors beyond the program's traditional focus and led to the rejection of nearly all state implementation plans
- Working with states and tribes to "resolve massive backlog with state implementation plans and tribal implementation plans that the Biden-Harris administration refused to resolve"
- Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within state and tribal implementation plans
- Reconstituting the Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee
- Prioritizing the coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations
- Utilizing enforcement discretion to further North Carolina's recovery from Hurricane Helene
Also, Trump is a longtime foe of electric vehicles (EVs), an aversion that does not appear to apply to Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk or his vehicles, and has vowed to claw back unspent federal funds supporting EV ownership that were contained in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
These 31 announcements won't become law any time soon. Their March 12 release was the first step in the lengthy and arduous path of withdrawing and replacing already-finalized rules according to the process set forth in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), an eight-decade old federal statute governing how the federal government makes rules and regulations.
The APA provided a process that government agencies must follow when they seek to issue a new rule or withdraw or modify finalized rules: Gather the relevant scientific or technical data supporting a rule change; issue a new draft rule along with an explanation of why the change is needed; allow the public to comment on the new draft rule; and finalize the rule.
Trump 2.0 is expected to pay closer attention to the procedural requirements of the APA as it seeks to reorient U.S. energy and environmental regulation. Several initiatives issued during Trump 1.0 were rejected by the courts because they did not follow the process laid out in the APA.
These initiatives are expected to impose significant, even unprecedented, scientific and technical demands on the EPA's in-house experts. Given the administration's stated goal of slashing the EPA staff 65%, it is unclear how the foundational scientific work will be performed.
Many, if not most or all, of the draft rules referenced in the EPA's March 12 press release are expected to draw spirited legal challenges. Ultimately, their fate may rest with the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Numerous GOP officials and business leaders touted the moves.
In a statement, Jay Timmons, president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers, said, "President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have answered the calls of manufacturers across the country to rebalance and reconsider burdensome federal regulations harming America's ability to compete."
Marty Durbin, a senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said: "American businesses were crippled with an unprecedented regulatory onslaught during the previous administration that contributed to higher costs felt by families around the country. The chamber supports a more balanced regulatory approach that will protect the environment and support greater economic growth."
Coal company officials also praised the effort. "The (CO2 emission) standard is so extreme that it's virtually impossible to comply with," Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of the coal supplier XCoal Energy and Resources (Latrobe, Pennsylvania), told The Washington Post. The Biden administration's clean power plan, which is currently mired in litigation, would have pushed all coal plants by 2039 to either capture their carbon dioxide emissions or shut down.
As popular as the EPA moves were for Republicans and some affected business leaders, the agency's efforts likely will encounter a buzzsaw of legal opposition, including from organizations that have successfully challenged prior Trump energy and environmental rules in the federal courts.
According to an article in The New York Times, Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate change and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said repealing or weakening regulations on automobiles, power plants and more would lead to increases in asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. "At a time when millions of Americans are trying to rebuild after horrific wildfires and climate-fueled hurricanes, it's nonsensical to try to deny that climate change harms our health and welfare."
The Times' coverage also quoted Jonathan H. Adler, a conservative legal expert and professor of environmental law at Case Western Reserve University, as predicting the Trump administration would not succeed in its efforts to rewrite so much foundational energy and environmental regulation.
Speaking only about efforts to change the EPA's "endangerment" finding, Adler said, "You've got to explain away decades of statements by every administration that there are negative consequences of climate change that can be reasonably anticipated." Efforts to unravel that finding was "a good way to waste years of time and effort and accomplish nothing."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
