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One of Trump’s signature moves, his January 30 executive order that requires two rules to be repealed for every new rule published, isn’t going to be anywhere near as simple as it might appear, Lorenzen said.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

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