The first day of President Joe Biden’s administration got off to a fast start with the signing of 17 directives, including 15 executive orders (EOs) reversing some of the Trump administration’s policies.
President Biden “is taking historic action on Day One to advance his agenda—including signing 15 executive actions and asking agencies to take steps in an additional two areas,” incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said to the Washington Post. “This compares to two Day One executive actions from Biden’s four predecessors in the White House combined.”
In addition to addressing the coronavirus pandemic, racial equity, immigration and rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, the most notable EO, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis, is a broad EO designed to reverse the majority of the Trump administration’s policies.
It directs federal agencies to review federal regulations and executive actions made by the Trump administration from the period of Jan. 20, 2017 to Jan. 20, 2021 to determine whether they were harmful to public health, damaging to the environment or unsupported by science. Specifically, the EO directs the agencies to “consider suspending, revising, or rescinding the agency actions” made during that period which includes the following actions for review:
• Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis (Jan. 20, 2021)—This final rule comprehensively updates, modernizes, and clarifies the regulations to facilitate more efficient, effective, and timely National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews by federal agencies.
• Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat(Dec. 16, 2020)—This adds the definition of “habitat” to Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This rulemaking responds to the Supreme Court case regarding the designation of critical habitat and provides transparency, clarity, and consistency for stakeholders.
• Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Listing Species and Designating Critical Habitat (Aug. 27, 2019)—This action revised portions of Section 4 of the ESA concerning the procedures and criteria used for listing or removing species from the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants and designating critical habitat.
• The Navigable Waters Protection Rule: Definition of “Waters of the United States,” (April 21, 2020)—This directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army to define the scope of waters federally regulated under the Clean Water Act programs by clarifying the scope of “waters of the United States” federally regulated under the Act.
Agency actions
Agency actions for the Department of the Interior to review include: removing the gray wolf from the ESA; regulations regarding the take of migratory birds; the revised critical habitat of the northern spotted owl; and the approved resource management plans for greater sage-grouse conservation in Idaho, Northwest Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, Nevada and Northeastern California.
It also includes the decision of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) ability to conduct active forest management while reducing burdens to the public and the administration of BLM-managed lands.
Last under review is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service revisions to Section 7 of the ESA regarding the regulations to clarify, interpret, and implement portions of the Act concerning the interagency cooperation procedures.
The EO also covers ambitious climate change policies, including reducing methane emissions in the oil and gas sector by September 2021; establishing “job-creating fuel economy standards” for vehicles and appliances; protecting the air from coal and oil-fired electric steam generating units, and a federal implementation plan of EPA’s finding that five states failed to provide procedures required for the 2008 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard.
Additionally, the EO asks the secretaries of Interior, Agriculture and Commerce; the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; and Tribal governments to determine if restoration of the boundaries and conditions of the Bears Ears National Monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument would be appropriate. It places a temporary moratorium on the implementation of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and revokes authorization for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Lastly, the EO looks at climate change by having agencies look at the “full costs of greenhouse gas emissions” by considering greenhouse emissions’ social costs. “An accurate social cost is essential for agencies to accurately determine the social benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions when conducting cost-benefit analyses of regulatory and other actions.”
Republican lawmakers were critical of the Biden administration’s decision to roll back fundamental energy and climate regulations of his predecessor, arguing doing so would ultimately cost jobs.
“President-elect Biden’s policies from Day One hurt American workers and our economy,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). Pointing to the Biden administration’s climate actions, she continued: “This virtue signaling comes at the expense of low-income and rural families that rely upon industries opposed by liberal environmental groups.”
Some of his actions drew swift criticism from Republicans who had endorsed Trump’s policies. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who broadly supported Trump’s policies, stressed to the Washington Post that Biden’s inaugural address was one of “unity and it’s important to govern that way as well.”
President Joe Biden in his inauguration speech stated, “We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility,” stressing “to restore the soul and to secure the future of America requires more than words.” — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
