Environmental Health Regulation in the Trump Era: How President Trump’s 2-for-1 Regulatory Plan Impacts Environmental Regulation

On February 8, 2017, a lawsuit was filed challenging President’s Trump regulatory reform paradigm. Plaintiffs were an unlikely alliance of a Congressional watch group, an environmental group and a labor group. The crux of the lawsuit argued that Executive Order 13771 “corrupts agency decision making across the board.” Trump’s regulatory reform initiatives were issued in fulfillment of his campaign promise to reduce the burden of federal regulation on American businesses by requiring agencies to repeal two regulations for every one promulgated. On April 17, 2017, fourteen states filed an amicus brief supporting Trump’s deregulatory initiative signaling the civil war over the efficacy of federal regulation ignited during the 2016 election cycle continues with vigor during the Trump presidency. The supporting states argued that “the administrative state has accelerated further the long-term growth of new regulatory burdens, while rarely eliminating unnecessary regulations issued in the past” and the “unlawfully-imposed burden has been largely borne by the States and their citizens.” This article explores how the Trump regulatory reform agenda impacts environmental regulation. The paper begins with an overview of the Trump regulatory reform formula describing executive orders and memoranda that outline regulatory guidelines generally and concerning federal environmental policy specifically. Next the paper examines the federal agency initiatives undertaken in response to the Trump directives, including both fact-finding dockets and regulatory action published in the federal register applying analysis of the executive orders as they pertain to environmental regulation. The article concludes by discussing the impact of both the process of reform efforts on environmental health policy and the likely legal result if reform is successful as designed.