EPA’s Preliminary Plan for Retrospective Reviews of Existing Regulations, Part I

On May 26, 2011, the White House released the preliminary regulatory review plans of 30 federal agencies, including the EPA. Under Executive Order 13,563, federal agencies were required to prepare preliminary regulatory review plans explaining how each agency "will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether [they] should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency's regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives." President Obama signed the Executive Order on January 18, 2011, and agencies were required to submit their preliminary plans to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within 120 days. 

EPA plans to conduct 31 regulatory reviews under its preliminary plan, including reviews of rules promulgated under the Clean Air Act (CAA). EPA's overarching goals for all of its regulatory reviews include improving transparency, easing the burden of compliance, increasing efficiency, and moving towards electronic reporting. A few key proposals in EPA's Plan will be outlined in Part II of this blog update.