The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released a guidance document on the subject of President Trump’s January 30, 2017 executive order, EO 13771, titled “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Cost.”  That executive order garnered a great deal of attention with its bold but simplistic decree that “[u]nless prohibited by law, whenever

The rollback of the controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule is underway.  Last week, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (Army) to review and rescind or rewrite the WOTUS rule, which was adopted in 2015 by the previous administration.  That rule

Nine trade associations, including the American Chemistry Council, the American Petroleum Institute, and the American Forest & Paper Association, have filed a Petition for Review challenging the EPA’s Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule.  The rule was developed by the Obama Administration and was not finalized until after the election, on November 28, 2016.  It is

On February 16th, President Trump signed a bill repealing the so-called stream protection rule, which was designed to prohibit dumping of debris from mountaintop removal mining into valleys and streams below the mining activity. The rule was promulgated by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and went into effect on January 19th,

On January 9, 2017, EPA issued a final rule adding subsurface intrusion (SsI) as a component to the Hazard Ranking System (HRS), which is the mechanism that is used for determining the eligibility of sites for CERCLA’s National Priorities List (NPL).  The rule allows the threat of subterranean vapor migration into regularly occupied structures to

On November 28, 2016, the EPA published its Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule, finalizing a much-needed update to the 30-year old Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste generator regulations.  The Rule includes over 60 changes to the hazardous waste generator regulations to make them easier to understand, which will presumably increase compliance,

Last week the Environmental Law and Policy Center, (ELPC) a Midwest-focused public interest environmental legal advocacy organization, held a post-election briefing outlining its plan for action during the Trump presidency.   Featuring prominently in the presentation was the launch of ELPC’s High Impact Environmental Litigation Program, or HELP.   The organization envisions a platoon of pro-bono attorneys