This post was originally published on Legal Planet. Reprinted with permission.
The Trump administration left a trail of regulatory destruction behind it. Cleaning up the mess and issuing new regulations is Priority #1 for the Biden administration. Under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Michael Regan, the effort is beginning to pick up steam.
EPA has begun the year with several major new regulatory efforts. No one of them is transformative standing alone, but their cumulative impact will be substantially cleaner air and lower carbon emissions.
February 28. EPA proposed an unexpectedly strong expansion of the existing rules governing interstate air pollution. The proposal would strengthen existing limits for coal and gas-fired power plants, but it would also add other categories of industry such as cement. In addition, it adds western states like California to the rule's coverage. EPA estimates that the benefits of the rule far exceed its costs. It projects that "[i]n the year 2026, the proposed rule would prevent approximately 1,000 premature deaths, reduce hospital and emergency room visits for thousands of people with asthma and other respiratory problems, help keep hundreds of thousands of children and adults from missing school and work due to respiratory illness, and decrease asthma symptoms for millions of Americans."
March 7. EPA proposed stringent new rules to limit emissions from heavy trucks, a major source of urban air pollution. This rule is particularly relevant to disadvantaged communities and communities of color, which are often located near major arteries and transportation hubs. EPA estimates that in 2045 alone, the rule will prevent:
March 9. EPA restored of California's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. This matters not only for California but for the sixteen states that have taken advantage of a provision in federal law allowing them to piggyback on the California rules. The Trump administration had revoked California's longstanding regulatory authority. The Biden EPA concluded that the revocation was based on an erroneous interpretation of the statute and that even if that interpretation had been correct, the Trump EPA also got the facts wrong.
April 1. Just after the quarter ended, EPA finalized new fuel efficiency rules for cars, undoing a Trump rollback. The new rules will require an average of 49 miles per gallon for the 2026 model year. That gets EPA's Q2 off to a strong start.
Each of these regulatory initiatives represents thousands of hours of gathering data, modeling, and drafting the regulation and its supporting justifications. It takes intense effort and dedication to make so many big regulatory moves at once. Proposing regulations is only the first step. EPA will need to process and respond to public comments on proposals and then work through complicated litigation to get the final regulations upheld. But nothing important was ever done in a day.
Editor's note: When EPA Administrator Michael Regan was first nominated by President Biden, the Center for Progressive Reform published a post with recommendations for agency action. You can read that post here on CPRBlog.
Top image courtesy of North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality.
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Daniel Farber | April 12, 2022
The Trump administration left a trail of regulatory destruction behind it. Cleaning up the mess and issuing new regulations is Priority #1 for the Biden administration. Under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Michael Regan, the effort is beginning to pick up steam.
John Knox | April 11, 2022
Introduced last month, the Advancing Human Rights-Centered International Conservation Act comes in the wake of a 2019 news investigation that described many instances of alleged murder, rape, and torture by park rangers against Indigenous people and local communities. The alleged abuses were perpetrated at parks supported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which received millions of dollars in funding from the U.S. government.
Jake Moore | April 5, 2022
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) recently made a statement bashing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the East Coast's regional cap-and-trade program intended to reduce climate pollution and energy costs for low-income households. In attacking the program, Youngkin repeated questionable claims about its costs, impacts, and benefits and made clear his desire to move the Commonwealth backwards on climate policy and the clean energy transition.
Daniel Farber | April 4, 2022
The Biden administration is slowly grinding away at an important regulatory task: reconsidering the air quality standards for particulates and ozone. Setting those standards is an arduous and time-consuming process, requiring consideration of reams of technical data. For instance, a preliminary staff report on fine particulates (PM2.5) is over 600 pages long. When the process is done, the result will not only be better protection of public health. It will also be a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming agents.
Brian Gumm | March 31, 2022
A couple of weeks ago, I traveled back to my home state to accept an award on behalf of the Center for Progressive Reform. The first-ever De Prey Peace Awards, named for Sheboygan, Wisconsin, peace activist Ceil De Prey, honor individuals and organizations whose work, volunteerism, and advocacy contribute to peace, a stronger democracy, and a better, more inclusive world for future generations.
William Funk | March 30, 2022
On the day before President Biden’s inauguration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adopted the Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely rule, colloquially known as the SUNSET Rule, because it would sunset any regulation that had not been assessed and, where required, reviewed within a specific timetable. Everyone is now expecting HHS to rescind the SUNSET Rule in the near future, and the agency should indeed take this action.
James Goodwin | March 29, 2022
The regulatory system, contrary to the claims of its conservative critics, is an indispensable part of the broader civic infrastructure on which our democracy is built. Significantly, the ability to exercise voting rights -- the most visible and potent act of civic engagement -- necessitates a stronger and more inclusive regulatory system.
Ian Campbell | March 28, 2022
Women led the battle for industrial democracy — even before they won the vote. However, women’s contributions to and leadership of the organized labor movement, though lionized within the movement itself, have largely escaped public consciousness.
Marcha Chaudry | March 24, 2022
Women’s History Month isn’t just a time to recognize achievements made throughout the decades to advance women’s rights and demand equity. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate women making history today, the ones in our unwritten history books.