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THE BIG PICTURE: Trump’s Regulatory Targets

September 4, 2018

President Trump campaigned on a promise to reduce regulation and control regulatory costs. One of his first actions after taking office was to issue an executive order calling for the elimination of two existing regulations for every one new regulation issued. Toward that end, the Trump administration has acted or sought to reverse more than 70 environmental rules. Among them are several Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations governing air, water, and waste emissions from the nation’s power plants. Here’s where those rules stand today. Notes: FIP = federal implementation plan; SIP = state implementation plan. Sources: Environmental Integrity Project, Environmental Law at Harvard, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School

1. Clean Power Plan

The EPA released a proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan in October 2017, saying the rule “exceeds the agency’s statutory authority.” In July 2018, the EPA sent a replacement plan to President Trump for review, saying it would seek public comment on the new measure after a White House review is completed but it did not provide a timeline.…

Japan Regulatory Group Gives Conditional Support for TEPCO Restart

September 14, 2017

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Japan’s nuclear watchdog agency has given Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) conditional approval to restart two reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. The units were taken offline after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in March 2011.

The country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on September 13 said TEPCO could restart the units after it provides a detailed plan of how it can ensure the operational safety of the boiling-water reactors, the same type that operated at Fukushima, which was crippled after an earthquake and tsunami struck the region, resulting in flooding at the nuclear plant. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported the NRA’s action.

A district court in March of this year ruled that TEPCO and the Japanese government were aware of risks at Fukushima and could have taken action to avoid the meltdown of three reactors.

TEPCO Under Scrutiny

Units 6 and 7 at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture were among 54 nuclear facilities in Japan—the country’s entire nuclear fleet—ordered to shut down after the 2011 earthquake.…

Trump’s Regulatory Rollback May Hit Roadblocks

February 15, 2017

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President Donald Trump’s drive to roll back federal regulations, especially from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will not be simple or smooth, a veteran Washington, D.C., attorney said at a utility conference on February 8.

Speaking at the Energy, Utility, and Environment Conference (EUEC) in San Diego, Calif., Thomas Lorenzen, a partner with D.C.–based law firm Crowell & Moring, told attendees that the roadblocks standing in the way of a rapid rollback are many and varied.

One of Trump’s signature moves, his January 30 executive order that requires two rules to be repealed for every new rule published, isn’t going to be anywhere near as simple as it might appear, Lorenzen said.

“It’s really going to depend on the enabling statutes,” he noted, since many regulations exist because of mandates from Congress. “Many of these laws have not been revised in decades.”

Without changes in the law, the administration’s hands are often tied.

“It’s not clear how effective this order is going to be,” he said, pointing out that withdrawing or revising an existing rule requires a new rulemaking process.…