On Monday, the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., halted litigation related to a fight between the Trump administration and California until further notice, effectively stopping the Trump era regulatory effort in its tracks. At issue was an attempt by the Trump administration to restrict the ability of California and other states to set their own emissions standards for vehicles. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration’s national standards were weaker than those that California moved to impose, and those lower standards could subject the environment to greater degradation.
Last week, the Biden administration requested the litigation halt and formally informed the court that the Trump era rule blocking California’s emissions standards “is under close scrutiny by the Federal Agencies, and the positions taken by the Agencies in this litigation to date may not reflect their ultimate conclusions.” In other words, now that the Biden administration is in power, the official positions of certain government agencies on this issue are poised for change. Besides their halt on litigation related to the emissions standards fight, the D.C. appeals court also ordered status updates from the Biden administration on their review of the rule banning California’s self-set emissions standards.
As summarized by The Guardian, in one of his early executive orders, President Joe Biden ordered “federal agencies to postpone sending any regulations to the Federal Register until someone he appoints can review the regulation.” Across the federal government, the Trump administration sought to enact often drastic regulatory change, although in one notable instance, the D.C. appeals court struck down an attempt by the Trump administration to ease regulations on coal-fired power plants on January 19, which was Trump’s last full day as president. In other cases, the Trump administration got the opportunity to put their destructive agenda into effect through means like a rule removing certain waterways from federal supervision.
Besides his efforts to directly confront Trump era problems, Biden is also charting a path forward. Among other steps, he has cancelled the Keystone XL oil pipeline, paused the issuance of new oil and gas drilling permits for federal lands, and more. The broader administration also recently imposed a mask-wearing mandate for airports, planes, and other public transportation contexts, which was a foundational step that shouldn’t have had to wait for a new presidential administration.
