Outlook 2018

OUTLOOK 2018

The major environmental policy issues under the Trump administration and GOP Congress

Inside EPA's Outlook 2018 is a comprehensive special report on what's ahead for EPA in the second year of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda and Administrator Scott Pruitt's efforts to overhaul the agency. As we always do, this report focuses on the legislation, litigation and agency rulemakings in the coming year on major air, water, waste, toxics and other policies. But it also tees up some of the major policy decisions in the coming weeks and months, as the administration seeks to not only undo many Obama-era rules but also fundamentally change how EPA operates.

Or read individual articles below.

Pruitt's Push For Stricter Cleanups May 'Shake Up' Deregulatory Narrative

Even as he works to ease a range of EPA regulatory policies, Administrator Scott Pruitt appears to be adopting strict Superfund cleanup requirements, prompting concern from industry officials who say the remedy EPA selected at a Texas site – which even accounts for potential climate change impacts – may preview what will be required at other locations. Pruitt's push for strict cleanups is "a way to shake up the narrative" in the face of criticisms from Democrats and environmentalists that...

EPA Continues Work On PFAS, But Rules Unlikely Despite Growing Pressure

Despite growing attention to contamination from perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS), EPA is unlikely in the near term to develop enforceable cleanup standards, leaving it up to states to shoulder the responsibility for what may become a patchwork of standards even as public pressure to address the issue grows. Instead, the agency in 2018 is expected to continue various other research and detection development efforts, despite a likely absence of policy. For instance, the agency is continuing an intra-agency workgroup effort to...

2018 Will Be Crucial Year For EPA To Decide On Air Rule Reconsiderations

EPA faces several crucial tests in 2018 for deciding whether its months-long review of Obama-era Clean Air Act rules will result in repeal or revision of the regulations or to leave the policies in place, with an appellate court that hears most challenges to air rules signaling its impatience with some of the ongoing reconsiderations. William Wehrum, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Air & Radiation (OAR), says some reviews are on a “fast boat,” such as the repeal of...

EPA Weighs Shifting Lead To States For Reducing Interstate Air Pollution

EPA air chief William Wehrum is hoping to have states take the lead on curbing interstate transport of air pollution, moving away from the agency's past approach of using federal mandates to address the problem and putting the burden on states to undertake air modeling and craft emissions strategies. At a Dec. 12 meeting of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC) in Washington, D.C., Wehrum said he had not yet had the opportunity to examine EPA's interstate pollution policy...

OPPT Faces Challenges Meeting 2018 Deadlines For Implementing TSCA

EPA's Office of Pollution, Prevention & Toxics (OPPT) faces significant challenges meeting statutory deadlines for implementing key provisions in the overhauled Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) this year, with chemical sector sources offering mixed predictions on how many deadlines the agency will reasonably be able to meet. Among the various policies that the agency is required by law to issue this year -- but may struggle to do so due to litigation, resources limits and other hurdles -- is a...

Pruitt's Push To Overhaul EPA Science Likely To Remain Controversial

Administrator Scott Pruitt's efforts to overhaul EPA's science are likely to remain controversial in 2018, with Democrats and environmentalists challenging cuts to agency research and an overhaul of its scientific advisory boards even as some conservative groups say some of his efforts on climate science are not going far enough. Pruitt's efforts to date have included proposing significant cuts to the research office's budget, encouraging scientists and other agency staff to retire, blocking scientists from speaking at climate change-related conference...

Democratic States' Climate Efforts Aim To Counter Trump EPA Rollbacks

Efforts by a slew of Democratic-led states to enact new or expanded climate mitigation policies in the coming months could counterbalance some of the Trump EPA's broad regulatory rollbacks, though it is unlikely that state programs would fully offset the greenhouse gas emissions impact of relaxed federal policies. Existing GHG cap-and-trade programs on both coasts are poised to expand, while several states with major gas production will implement rules limiting methane emissions from drilling facilities. In addition, California and several...

Water Infrastructure Funding Faces Uncertain 2018 Despite Trump Plan

Water infrastructure funding faces an uncertain 2018 even though President Donald Trump could soon unveil his principles for a major national infrastructure package, sources say, as it is unclear whether Trump's plan will include water infrastructure and whether Congress can overcome partisan divisions to approve new funding. Trump's Dec. 22 enactment of the massive tax overhaul legislation cleared the way for the administration to move other priorities, including infrastructure. “I think they'll be optimistic with the success of the tax...

Lawsuits On TSCA 'Uses' Pose Major Hurdle For New Law's Future Success

Pending suits over which chemical “uses” EPA needs to consider and regulate could pose a major hurdle for the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as environmentalists are threatening to ramp up their push for state regulations if the agency does not adequately address the substances, undermining industry calls for single federal standards. One environmentalist says that unless and until the Trump administration tightens its TSCA implementing rules, supporters of stricter chemical policies should ask states to pursue them, opening...

Efforts By EPA, DHS To Reduce Facility Safety Oversight Face Obstacles

EPA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are expected to push ahead aggressively this year with efforts to streamline and reduce oversight of industrial facility safety, but the deregulatory bids face obstacles including legal challenges and crafting an administrative record to justify undoing stricter Obama-era safety rules. “My sense is at this moment in time, the most vulnerable elements” of the previous administration's stricter risk management program (RMP) facility safety rule “are all of them,” attorney Eric Conn of...

Milestones In 2018 Could Clarify EPA-California Battles On Vehicle GHGs

Major regulatory milestones over the first several months of 2018 are poised to offer clearer indications of whether the Trump administration, automakers, environmentalists and California can avoid a full-scale battle over vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy rules, amid little outward sign of compromise on the issue. EPA's forthcoming steps in its reconsideration of passenger vehicle and heavy-duty truck GHG standards – which faces its first milestone April 1 – come after the agency in 2017 reopened a mid-term review...

Industry Certainty Might Prove Elusive Despite Pruitt's Deregulatory Push

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's deregulatory agenda is unlikely to provide certainty for many industries despite promises of streamlined environmental rules, according to industry and other observers who cite legal challenges and early policy proposals that create major uncertainty for some sectors investing in cleaner technologies. These sources point to looming litigation over Trump EPA efforts to repeal and replace the Clean Power Plan (CPP) greenhouse gas limits for utilities, the unresolved effort to define the reach of the Clean Water...

EPA Budget Fights, Oversight Likely Supersede Major Hill Legislation In 2018

EPA's Capitol Hill critics face murky prospects for moving significant legislation in 2018 to limit the agency's authority, but the agency still faces threats from a continued budget squeeze, as well as oversight by both backers and critics of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda. “Members are going to be cautious about acting on specific legislation that brings about . . . destruction of EPA's core capabilities,” says Elgie Holstein, Environmental Defense Fund's senior director of strategic planning, in an interview...

EPA Races To Scrap Obama-Era CWA Rule While High Court Reviews Stay

EPA is pursuing a multifaceted legal and regulatory strategy this year to scrap the Obama administration's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule to head off an upcoming Supreme Court decision that, depending on how the justices rule, could scrap the Trump administration's stay of the existing rule and force EPA to implement it. Further complicating EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's stated vow to repeal the CWA rule and replace it with a narrow jurisdiction policy is the agency's development of three...

EPA's Deregulatory Agenda Tees Up New Legal Battles Over Limits Of APA

EPA's aggressive deregulatory agenda to undo Obama-era policies through stays, reconsiderations, rewrites and repeals of regulations dating back years is teeing up legal battles that pose major new tests for the limits of the Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) restrictions on how agencies make and undo their rules. Depending on how courts rule in APA litigation over the Trump administration's rollbacks of Obama-era rules, it could set new precedents either expanding exemptions from the law or underscoring existing limits on agency's...

2018 Seen As Big Test For Pruitt To Finalize Obama-Era Rule Rollbacks

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has vowed to undo much of the Obama administration's regulatory imprint on the agency, particularly regarding climate change rules, and while he has started the process of repealing many of them, sources say 2018 will be a major test of whether he can deliver final deregulatory actions and keep strong momentum on other efforts. A GOP strategist believes Pruitt will make significant progress in 2018 “because I know Pruitt and he's a very methodical guy. He...

California To Keep Pushing State Clean Energy Links Amid Trump Pullback

California's continued efforts to advance regulatory programs to fight climate change and bolster clean energy amid the Trump administration's pullback on such matters could help spur unprecedented actions by other states in 2018, including linking with the Golden State's greenhouse gas trading system and expanding the Western electricity grid. Oregon lawmakers, for example, just unveiled new details for their pending legislation to create a GHG cap-and-trade system and link it to the existing California-Quebec program, which is already set to...

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