On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a proposed rule to repeal the amendments to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”) adopted by the Biden administration in 2024. These...more
6/18/2025
/ Air Pollution ,
Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Deregulation ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Power Plants ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Trump Administration
After little more than a week in office, there is still plenty of speculation, but priorities of the Trump 2.0 Administration are becoming more concrete. Issuance of three energy-focused Executive Orders (Unleashing American...more
1/30/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Alaska ,
Climate Change ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Department of the Interior ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
FERC ,
Infrastructure ,
NEPA ,
OMB ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trump Administration
The incoming Trump Administration is expected to prioritize the rollback of Biden-era endangered species regulations, aiming to reduce the regulatory burden on land-intensive businesses and enhance energy independence. This...more
1/10/2025
/ Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trump Administration ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
Wildlife Protection
In 2020, President-elect Donald Trump promised to ensure that “America’s most critical infrastructure projects” would not be “tied up and bogged down by an outrageously slow and burdensome federal approval process.” Much of...more
12/19/2024
/ Audubon Society ,
Biden Administration ,
CEQ ,
Department of Environmental Quality ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
National Environmental Policies ,
NEPA ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rescission ,
Trump Administration
During the 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised his supporters that he would direct federal agencies on day one to “immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods.” For the...more
12/5/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Congressional Review Act ,
COP ,
Deregulation ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
PFAS ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) Policy ,
Trump Administration ,
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
On June 30, 2021, President Biden signed into law a joint resolution of Congress repealing a Trump administration rule that removed methane as a pollutant regulated under the Clean Air Act in the oil and gas industry...more
As discussed in this previous post, the state of methane regulation for the oil and gas industry has been in flux over the past few years as federal regulations issued by the Obama administration were challenged in court and...more
4/2/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Methane ,
New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) ,
Obama Administration ,
Oil & Gas ,
Trump Administration ,
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
The Biden administration has signaled its intention to recriminalize non-purposeful, or incidental, “takes” of birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”). The longstanding debate over the scope of criminal liability...more
3/18/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Criminal Liability ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Incidental Take Permits ,
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Renewable Energy ,
SCOTUS ,
Trump Administration ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
Wind Power
On February 5, 2021, the acting head of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) division that brings environmental enforcement cases issued a memo revoking nine policy directives from the prior administration, including...more
The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (“CPP”) — an unprecedented use of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from power plants — is only “mostly dead” and could soon spring back to life. Yes,...more
While news stories and campaign rhetoric can frequently create expectations of immediate shifts after a change in administration, most changes happen slowly in the federal government, and constraints on resources means that...more
1/28/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
CERCLA ,
Chemicals ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
PFAS ,
PHMSA ,
Risk Management ,
Trump Administration ,
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) ,
Wastewater
Each new presidential administration brings with it its own set of policy goals and priorities. While the text of U.S. environmental law does not change without an act of Congress, agencies within the executive branch have a...more
News stories and campaign rhetoric frequently create expectations of immediate shifts following an administration change, but most changes in the federal government happen slowly, and the constraint on resources and time...more
1/20/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Biden Administration ,
Clean Water Act ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Policies ,
FERC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Methane ,
Nationwide Permits (NWPs) ,
Natural Gas Act ,
NEPA ,
Pipelines ,
Trump Administration ,
Waters of the United States
On May 19, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released a proposed rulemaking that would codify the EPA’s practice under the Trump administration’s Executive Order 13891 “Promoting the Rule of Law Through...more
Guidance documents have always been important and useful tools for the regulated community to: glimpse how an agency might use its discretion, determine how an agency might apply a regulation, and simply understand complex...more