The first few months of the new US administration have brought sweeping changes to the country’s environmental regulatory landscape. Through a spate of executive orders, agency directives, and staffing restructurings, the administration is rapidly changing course from many of the climate, clean energy, and environmental justice initiatives established over the last decade.
While the full impacts of these changes will unfold over time—and likely face numerous legal challenges—the strategic direction is discernible: a pivot away from climate mitigation and environmental justice efforts and toward energy independence, including support of fossil fuel development, deregulation, and permitting reform.
For business leaders and their legal counsel, understanding these shifts is essential for successfully addressing compliance planning, identifying litigation risks, and adapting long-term investment strategies. This Insight, based on our Earth Day webinar series, provides an overview of the most significant federal environmental developments to date and offers key takeaways to help companies navigate this rapidly evolving policy environment.
The centerpiece of the administration’s environmental agenda is energy development, particularly domestic fossil fuels. Framed by the declaration of a “national energy emergency,” the administration has empowered federal agencies to fast-track oil, gas, and coal projects, loosen permitting requirements, and prioritize infrastructure development on federal lands.
Key executive orders have
Taken together, these moves reflect an aggressive strategy to boost fossil fuel output by reducing regulatory friction. This could be especially impactful if the administration can effectuate permit reforms that facilitate siting, design, and construction of pipeline and electricity infrastructure.
While the administration expects its reforms to lower costs and enhance energy security, stakeholders should be aware of the potential for public opposition, litigation, and market instability and uncertainty. It is also unknown to what extent oil and gas producers will increase production based on current and projected future commodity prices.
Two of the most prominent areas impacted by the administration’s shift in environmental priorities are federal climate action and environmental justice initiatives.
Climate Regulation Rollback
One of the most consequential steps in the climate change arena is the administration’s reconsideration of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins all greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations under the Clean Air Act. If revoked, it would undermine EPA’s authority to regulate GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act, require reconsideration of existing climate rules, and likely reshape the regulatory framework around climate issues for the foreseeable future.
The administration has performed the following additional actions:
Each of these decisions signals a shift from climate mitigation to energy expansion, raising legal and regulatory uncertainty across industries where planning horizons value stability.
Environmental Justice Initiatives Dismantled
The administration has also moved to dismantle the prior administration’s environmental justice framework through several actions:
The administration promotes these efforts as part of its broader push for merit-based and color-blind policymaking. Regardless of the rationale, these steps are a departure from permitting and enforcement decisions that had increasingly accounted for socioeconomic and cumulative pollution factors under prior policy. The loss of dedicated environmental justice funding and infrastructure may also have direct impacts on cleanup, remediation, and development efforts in historically burdened communities.
Another cornerstone of the administration’s agenda is reforming environmental permitting processes. At the federal level, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a key focus. A recent DC Circuit ruling, Marin Audubon Society v. FAA, called into question the validity of existing NEPA implementing regulations, and the administration has since moved to rescind all Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations issued since 1977.
New directives
The result is a highly fluid permitting environment, with standards and processes varying between agencies and likely to shift midstream. For project developers and investors, this system may increase the risks of delay, litigation, and noncompliance, particularly for large infrastructure and energy projects.
Further, a slate of deregulatory executive orders aims to reduce federal oversight of emissions sources, water pollution, and power plant operations, including rules that encourage agencies to rescind past guidance or “zero out” entire regulatory budgets tied to clean energy or climate efforts.
The volume and scope of the administration’s executive actions in the environmental arena arguably are unprecedented. While many of the policies are still in early implementation phases, several trends are emerging:
Many of the administration’s goals, particularly those focused on deregulation and fossil fuel expansion, rely on agency rulemaking and interpretation: the most significant impacts may not be felt for months or even years. But the administration’s executive actions are already reshaping how companies evaluate environmental risk, approach compliance, and prepare for enforcement.
Business leaders and their legal advisors should stay closely attuned to regulatory developments and court challenges while also evaluating how their internal ESG, climate, and permitting strategies may need to adapt to a more volatile, less predictable federal landscape.