EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced last Thursday, “Yesterday was the most consequential day of deregulation in American history. Alongside President Trump, we announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will take 31 actions to advance his day-one executive orders and power the Great American Comeback.”

I am not sure there is much more to say in this blog post.

Okay, the announcement continues, “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 ..”

Likely most important among the actions announced is the reconsideration of the endangerment finding, when in 2009 without any legislation from Congress, the Obama EPA declared greenhouse gases are a pollutant it can regulate under the Clean Air Act, providing justification for federal, state, and local global warming regulation that many believe is far from protecting Americans from anything environmental; and, that is the action the popular media has focused on.

The whole list of actions announced by Lee Zeldin is worthy of your perusal:

UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY
• Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0)
• Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry (OOOO b/c)
• Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal fired power plants (MATS)
• Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply (GHG Reporting Program)
• Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards (ELG) for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low cost electricity while protecting water resources (Steam Electric ELG)
• Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for oil and gas development to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELG)
• Reconsideration of Biden Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe (Risk Management Program Rule)

LOWERING THE COST OF LIVING FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES
• Reconsideration of light-duty, medium duty, and heavy duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules)
• Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding (Endangerment Finding)
• Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule)
• Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS)
• Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs)
• Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families (Regional Haze)
• Overhauling Biden Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon”
• Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers (Enforcement Discretion)
• Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI)

ADVANCING COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM
• 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 (SIPs/TIPs)
• Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans (Exceptional Events)
• Reconstituting Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC)
• Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations (CCR Rule)
• Utilizing enforcement discretion to further North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene

And there is much more that did not make the announced list including the quietly suggested plan to sell Energy Star and whispers about tactics to dismantle the electric vehicle mandates. All of this fits within the public statements from the White House that through a combination of workforce and spending costs the EPA budget will see a more than 65% reduction next year.

Activists have already claimed that these changes signal a retreat from environmental protection. But we are certain, nothing could be further from the truth. The EPA’s core mission of safeguarding human health and the environment remains. What will be gone are the non Congressionally authorized frolics and detours, as the agency gets back to protecting the environment.

As this blog is being written, it has only been 57 days since the Trump administration took office, and beginning with the Executive Orders signed on day one, there has been much change in environmental matters and the pace of pursuing opportunities in that change is only accelerating.

We are environmental attorneys and entrepreneurs, not partisans. We prioritize innovation in environmental change for those who chase being the fastest adapters and quickest disrupters and we will continue to blog about that here.
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