White House Regulatory Agenda Targets Obama-Era Environmental Regulations

On July 20, 2017, the White House released its first regulatory agenda, outlining a strategy that would cut back on Obama-era environmental protections. The agenda details plans to “shrink the federal government’s regulatory footprint” by fully withdrawing, among other regulations, both the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule (for more information on the rescission of the WOTUS rule, see our blog post on the topic).

In total, the White House announced that it was withdrawing or suspending 860 pending regulations related to energy production and environmental protection: 469 are being completely withdrawn while 391 are being set aside or reevaluated. In a statement, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs announced, “[t]his agenda represents the beginning of a fundamental regulatory reform and a reorientation toward reducing unnecessary regulatory burden on the American people.”

Both environmentalists and representatives of the oil and gas industry replied to the change in the regulatory agenda with strong reactions. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune stated that “[t]aking a hatchet to protections that safeguard clean air and water, public lands and the health of our families is not an achievement, it’s a disgrace and a threat to every person in our country.” Conversely, Kathleen Sgamma, head of the Western Energy Alliance, a non-profit trade association representing oil and gas drillers in Western states said “[w]e just got through eight years of a regulatory onslaught, aimed at curtailing oil and gas production. So we are very supportive of the administration’s efforts to roll back regulation.” In particular, Sgamma cheered the administration’s effort to repeal the methane rule, which would have assisted in reducing one of the gases scientists attribute to climate change by, among other things, fining oil and gas drillers $50,000 per well for violations of the rule.

In August, EPA is planning to address and repeal regulations regarding standards for water pollution from power plants, methane pollution limits for landfills, and methane limits for oil and gas drilling.