What action was taken to define the scope of federal jurisdiction?
On January 23, 2020, the Trump Administration released the final version of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR), which defines which waters and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act. The NWPR replaces the Obama Administration’s “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule.
The Trump Administration has made it a priority to shift more responsibility to the states on enforcement. On July 11, 2019, U.S. EPA released a memorandum to the Regional Administrators regarding federal and state enforcement. The latest policy memorandum was a collaboration between U.S. EPA and State EPA Administrators. The memorandum includes:
On January 22, 2018, U.S. EPA’s Assistant Administrator issued a memorandum to all U.S. EPA Regional Administrators that contained interim guidance on enforcement of environmental violations by State EPAs and the federal EPA. The interim guidance is a significant shift away from the traditional federal/state balance on enforcement giving much greater leeway to the States.
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While the Trump Administrations primary environmental agenda has been focused on deregulation, one area EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has prioritized is Superfund (i.e. CERCLA). Superfund is meant to investigate and cleanup the dirtiest sites in the country. However, its long and complicated investigation, remedy selection and cleanup implementation processes have slowed cleanups to a crawl.
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On June 6, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt notified states that U.S. EPA was extending by one year the deadline for designating those areas in non-compliance with the 2015 ozone standard. The 2015 ozone standard is 70 parts per billion (ppb), which is lower than the prior ozone standard of 75 ppb established in 2008.
In the past several months, the Trump Administration has targeted U.S. EPA for major regulatory reform, massive budget cuts and a roll-back of Obama era regulations. No Administration since the enactment of the landmark environmental statutes has gone as as far as the Trump Administration in attempting to change the landscape of environmental regulation.
After
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This week, President Trump released his Administration’s first federal budget dubbed the "America First- A Blueprint to Make America Great Again." Under the budget proposal, U.S. EPA current budget would be cut by 31% which amounts to a $2.6 billion dollar reduction.
This leaves the Agency with $5.7 billion to run its
On January 20th, Reince Preibus, President Trumps Chief of Staff, issued a broad regulatory freeze memorandum entitled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” halting federal rules that had not yet become effective. All rules covered by the memorandum are suspended for 60 days (March 21, 2017). On January 26, 2017, EPA published a list of