Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a series of 31 major deregulatory actions that would roll back a number of requirements put in place in the Biden Administration. The affected regulations include:

• Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (including rescinding waivers to the California Air Resources Board for its Advanced Clean Trucks and Omnibus NOx rules);
• Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding regarding the effect of greenhouse gases on public health and safety and regulations and actions that rely on that finding;
• Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0);
• Modernizing outdated regulations on wastewater discharges for oil and gas extraction facilities to lower energy costs while supporting environmentally sustainable water reuse;
• Reconsideration of Biden-Harris regulations for the oil and gas industry under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act and Subpart W of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program;
• Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS);
• Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs);
• Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule for oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities;
• Overhauling the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon” used to support and justify many environmental rulemakings;
• Working with the Army Corps of Engineers to review the definition of “waters of the United States” to ensure that a revised definition follows the law, reduces red-tape, cuts overall permitting costs, and lowers the cost of doing business in communities across the country while protecting the nation’s navigable waters from pollution;
• Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens (Enforcement Discretion);
• Terminating the Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI); and
• Working with states and tribes to resolve backlog with State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans under the Clean Air Act.

Most of these efforts will require the agency to complete a rulemaking to reconsider the prior decisions; any new final rule or determination must be justified by changes in scientific analysis and public policy.

In addition, Zeldin has already submitted the CARB waiver decisions to Congress for reconsideration and termination under the Congressional Review Act.

Any changes to EPA regulations will ultimately be challenged in court by States and/or environmental groups.