Biden puts Trump’s climate and environmental setbacks in his sights

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Biden’s advisers have compiled a list of more than 100 rules and policies developed by the Trump administration that it sees as targets for review, CNN has learned. Each of the policies relates to environmental conservation and climate change and is linked to a decree Biden intends to sign on public health and the environment.

Many of the items on the list are primary targets of critics from environmental groups who have accused the Trump administration of ignoring the risks of climate change and being too sympathetic to the wishes of the industry.

The list includes several changes to domestic utilities that Trump has touted during his rallies.

Energy efficiency limits, he said, have made it difficult to wash “her beautiful hair properly” under weak shower heads, drew complaints and made dishwashers inefficient. His energy secretary overturned a tightening of the light bulb rules after the president told his crowd that new light bulb technology was the reason “I always look orange”.

Some of these policies may be easier than others to interrupt, prevent from taking effect, or cancel.

A May 2020 policy on mining property in part of North Dakota, for example, was a legal memorandum and could be rescinded with an updated legal memorandum by those named by Biden. The administration also rescinded by legal memorandum a 25-year-old policy protecting sand along the protected shoreline from sale.

Most of Team Biden’s nine-page list can be complicated to set aside or reverse because the Trump administration wrote them into formal regulations.

The Biden administration could however pursue other avenues.

With a Democratic majority – albeit a slim one – in both houses of Congress, the administration could also turn to Capitol Hill for help. The Congressional Review Act would allow lawmakers and Biden to jointly overturn the agency’s rules in recent months. Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress used the rule to reverse action taken by the Obama administration soon after taking office.

He could also choose to side with groups that challenge virtually all of the Trump administration’s major environmental and energy decisions in court.

You won’t have to look far either. Perhaps the most recent challenge, this time to roll back bird protection, was tabled Tuesday by a coalition of environmental groups – the day before Biden took office.

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