Will Trump’s Regulatory Rollbacks Survive?

President Trump has gone to great lengths to undo the regulatory accomplishments of his predecessor. But the President’s methods could come back to haunt him, dooming his deregulatory energy and environmental agendas.
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The Trump Administration has taken aggressive steps to undo the regulatory accomplishments of former president Obama, with some of the highest profile rollbacks taking place in the energy and environmental arenas. In his three years in office, President Trump has repealed the Clean Power Plan, rolled back restrictions on methane leaks and, most recently, repealed limits on automotive tailpipe emissions.

Yet, it’s possible that the same tools that Trump has used to undo the regulatory achievements of his predecessor could be turned against him.

A pair of regulatory experts take a look at President Trump’s unprecedented use of three legal tools to pursue his deregulatory agenda, and at how a new administration could use these same tools to roll back Trump-era rules. They also discuss how the very nature of future presidencies may be altered as the deregulatory gloves have been taken off, limiting the ability of presidents to enact important rules on any front.

Bethany Davis Noll is Litigation Director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Richard Revesz is Dean Emeritus at NYU School of Law, and directs the Institute for Policy Integrity.

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