Tracking Biden’s environmental actions
As Biden unwinds dozens of Trump’s energy and environmental policies, he’s forging his own.
policies
56
Added
46
Proposed
environmental policies
83
Overturned
90
Targeted
59
Not targeted
President Biden pledged early on to use every corner of the federal government to combat climate change with “a greater sense of urgency.” This summer, as much of the country sweltered under intense heat and faced severe wildfires and drought, he and his party managed to usher through an unprecedented level of climate funding while his administration pressed ahead with other policies aimed at curbing planet-warming pollution.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed Tuesday, provides roughly $385 billion to address climate change and speed the nation’s shift toward clean energy, according to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. This includes $260 billion in clean energy tax credits, $80 billion for rebates for electric vehicles, home energy efficiency upgrades and $1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever,” the president said just before signing the bill at the White House. “Ever.”
While the measure will help Biden fulfill his pledge to halve the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, it will take further executive action to realize that goal. The administration is working to lock in additional carbon cuts by approving offshore wind projects and pursuing rules to make everything from cars to home appliances more efficient.
Latest actions
Sept. 13, 2022
Approving the Cadiz Water Project
A federal judge vacated a Trump-era permit greenlighting a project to allow a private company to extract water from beneath the Mojave Desert and transport it through a pipeline to the Colorado River Aqueduct. Read more »
Sept. 12, 2022
Tighter restrictions for blowout preventers on offshore wells
The Biden administration proposed stricter requirements on fail-safe devices used to prevent oil spills, part of an effort to prevent diasters such as the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010. Read more »
The story of Biden’s time in office so far is one not just of doing, but also of undoing.
“We’ve had to do a lot of getting back to square one, which is frustrating,” Gina McCarthy, the president’s national climate adviser, said about the significant time and effort required to restore regulations that were weakened or eliminated under President Donald Trump. “We’ve had to roll back the rollbacks.”
Biden has now targeted or overturned about three-quarters of the Trump administration’s deregulatory actions, according to a Washington Post analysis, from nixing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to imposing new curbs on emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. He has mobilized even far-flung agencies to focus on the issue, mandating that the federal government find ways to erase its carbon footprint by 2050.
Still, he has yet to deliver on some key pledges, such as halting all new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters and ensuring that every federal infrastructure investment account for climate change.
Biden faces pressure from environmental allies to act faster to cut the country’s emissions, create green-energy jobs and lessen the burden of pollution on poor and minority communities. And the midterm elections this fall threaten to hand more power to Republicans, who have opposed the ways in which Biden has pushed to phase out fossil fuels.
“Misguided,” Rep. Bruce Westerman (Ark.), the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, said of the administration’s energy policies to date.
He and other Republicans have criticized Biden’s attempts to scale back domestic oil and gas production, prevent more expansive minerals mining, halt pipelines and promote wind and solar above other forms of energy — an approach he argues makes the United States more dependent on other nations, threatens existing jobs and does little to tackle overall global emissions.
“It’s been punitive and illogical,” Westerman said in an interview.
But McCarthy said the administration has no plans to let up on its efforts to slow climate change, as extreme disasters mount and the world continues to warm.
“There’s lots more to do,” she said, adding about 2022, “I do think when all is said and done, people will look at this year as a game changer.”
[Track the latest developments in climate policy and politics with The Climate 202 newsletter]
Air pollution and greenhouse gases
The Trump administration enacted at least 64 policies weakening or overturning regulations aimed at curbing air pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions fueling global warming. Biden has said he will reverse that legacy and promote a low-carbon future instead. By signing a document to rejoin the Paris climate agreement on his first day in office, the new president reversed one of his predecessor’s signature policies and signaled a different path.
New 44
Easy to overturn 20
Medium 34
Difficult 11
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Inflation Reduction Act provides roughly $385 billion to address climate change and speed the shift to clean energy, including $260 billion in clean energy tax credits, $80 billion for rebates for electric vehicles, home energy efficiency upgrades and $1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Read more »
President Biden doubled funding for the Building Rresilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, bringing its budget to $2.3 billion. The program, started under Donald Trump, aims to protect communities from climate disasters before they strike. Read more »
The Department of the Navy adopted a blueprint to reduce the equivalent of CO2 emissions from 1 million cars through natural sequestration on Navy-owned lands by 2027, and establish climate-resilient, cyber-secure microgrids. Read more »
The Transportation Department announced that it would provide $6.4 billion in funds under the bipartisan infrastructure bill to states. The program has few requirements, only calling for states to spend the money on programs aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Read more »
The Energy Department announced that it would provide $6 billion in funds under the bipartisan infrastructire bill to support struggling nuclear plants. Read more »
Biden officials developed the first “building performance standards” for federal facilities, which will take effect in April 2023. Read more »
The Biden administration auctioned off more than 488,000 acres of offshore wind leases in the Atlantic Ocean, netting $4.37 billion. The total energy that could be generated from the leases, an estimated 7,000 megawatts, would be enough to power 2 million homes. Read more »
The U.S. Army set two major climate goals -- a 50 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and net-zero emissions by 2050 --as well as a plan to achieve them. Read more »
The Agriculture Department announced that it would invest $1 billion in climate-smart commodities and practices through its Commodity Credit Corporation. Read more »
Since Biden took office the EPA has issued proposed or final rules for hazardous air pollutants stemming from copper smelting, cyanide chemicals,carbon black, refractory products, and polyurethane foam
The Energy Department established the office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to support up to $20 billion in projects with funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
President Biden signed an executive order calling for the federal government to run on all clean power by 2030, switch to zero-emission cars and light trucks by 2035, and make federal buildings carbon neutral by 2045. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management announced it would analyze the national greenhouse gas emissions of all new oil and gas leases, and the social cost of those emissions, in its environmental impact statements. Read more »
The Biden administration issued the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on climate change, as well as a Defense climate risk analysis, and launched efforts at the Department of Homeland Security to address climate-related challenges including an uptick in migration to the United States. Read more »
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued a climate action plan six months after signing Secretarial Order 3399. That order established a climate task force and instructing the department to prioritize environmental justice concerns, tribal rights and scientific transparency in decisions through the National Environmental Policy Act. Read more »
The National Flood Insurance Program instituted a more equitable pricing system for policies that would take climate risk into account. The change raises the premiums for most homeowners, including on the coasts and in flood-prone areas, while reducing them for some. Read more »
EPA finalized a rule phasing down the production and import of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air conditioning, 85 percent by 2036. Read more »
President Biden signed an executive order calling for half of all new cars and light trucks sold in 2030 to be electric or plug-in hybrids. Read more »
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration notified the pipeline industry that they’re legally required to fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhous gas, in their pipelines and pipeline facilities under the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act. Companies must update their maintenance and operations plans as a result. Read more »
President Biden tasked his top climate and economic advisers with developing a strategy for assessing climate-related financial risks to government programs, assets and liabilities within 120 days. Read more »
Agriculture Secretary issued a plan to spur ‘climate-smart’ farming and forestry strategies on May 20, 2021. Read more »
President Biden pledged the U.S. would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 50 and 52 percent, compared to 2005 levels, by the end of the decade. Read more »
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established the Defense Climate Working Group to incorporate climate risk analysis into all of its operations and assess how it can curb the department’s greenhouse gas emissions. Read more »
President Biden mandated buying clean and zero-emission vehicles for the federal fleet. The administration set targets for the 2027 and 2035 fleet on Dec. 8, 2021. Read more »
President Biden ordered national security agencies to report within 90 days on integrating climate change into their work. The agencies submitted their reports to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, but did not release them to the public. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed strengthening efficiency standards for household gas-powered furnaces. The update would effectively phase out older “non-condensing” furnaces that burn more gas. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed tightening efficiency standards for commercial gas water heaters. The Obama administration proposed similar standards in 2016, which were blocked under Donald Trump. Read more »
The Biden administration is seeking heightened energy efficiency standards for pool heaters, saying it will benefit consumers if finalized. Read more »
Would mandate that certain room air conditioners become more efficient, which regulators estimate will save consumers money over time on utility costs. Read more »
EPA proposal expands the implementation of the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone. It covers additional states -- California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming -- as well as industrial sources such as pulp and paper mills, cement kilns and boilers and furnaces in iron and steel mills. Read more »
The proposal takes aim at tailpipe pollution from new tractor-trailers, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles that form smog, along with emissions that warm the planet. Read more »
President Biden announced the creation of a coalition of 33 state and local governments that will work with the Energy Department and labor unions to cut emissions from homes and commercial buildings. The goal is for each participant to produce new regulations and legislation on building energy peformance standards by April 2024. Read more »
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is taking comment on whether it should restrict power companies’ ability to force customers to finance the work of utility trade groups that advocate on behalf of fossil fuels, including the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association. Read more »
President Biden launched a government-wide strategy Monday to combat extreme heat, including the development of new federal labor standards aimed at protecting workers from rising temperatures linked to climate change. Read more »
The Biden administration set a goal of replacing all traditional jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, by boosting fuel production from waste and plants. Read more »
The Federal Insurance Office requested public comment on how it could assess climate change’s impact on the insurance sector and how it could help insurers address these financial risks. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management said it would seek public comment on how to assess “the potential environmental, social and cultural impacts of the coal program” it operates. Read more »
President Biden instructed his deputies to consider imposing new greenhouse gas disclosure requirements on federal suppliers and improve reporting and management requirements for federal lending programs that take climate risk into account. Read more »
President Biden instructed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, in her role as chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, to provide a report in 180 days on what the government should do to integrate climate risk into regulation of the financial sector. Read more »
Biden officials announced the government will develop new Energy Star ratings for electric heat pumps and invest $10 million in research and deployment of heat pump technology. Read more »
President Biden promised to work with Congress to boost annual public climate financing aid for developing countries to $11.4 billion by 2024. Read more »
President Biden proposed spending $35 billion on breakthrough climate technology and $15 billion on climate-related demonstrated projects. Read more »
President Biden proposed an “Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard” that would require utilities to get a percentage of their power from carbon-free sources. Read more »
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management signed off on the final environmental review for Vineyard Wind, an 800-megawatt offshore wind project. Read more »
The Transportation Department finalized a rule to restore California’s waiver to regulate air pollution under the Clean Air Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency took action in March 2020 to do the same. In May 2022, 17 states sued the Biden EPA over its decision. Read more »
The U.S. joined an agreement with other OECD countries that bans any financing of any unabated coal-fired power plants abroad. Read more »
EPA reinstated a 2015 policy curbing pollutants power plants can emit during startup, shutdown and malfunctions, which the Trump administration had rescinded. Read more »
President Biden announced that he would not only resume payments to the Green Climate Fund, which helps poor nations address climate change, but seek to double them to $11.4 billion. Read more »
EPA issued guidance on regional haze standards that supercede an August 2019 policy weaening an Obama-era rule meant to improve air quality in national parks and wilderness areas. Read more »
EPA finalized a rule that replaced a Trump proposal for testing for heavy-duty vehicles and engines that could have led to higher CO2 emissions. Read more »
The EPA finalized a list of more climate-friendly refrigerants that could substitute for hydrofluorocarbons, potent greenhouse gases. Read more »
EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the agency would resume funding the U.N. Foundation’s Clean Cooking Alliance, after Trump officials cut a $1.1 million grant to the group in 2017. Read more »
President Biden rejoined the 2015 Paris accord, from which Donald Trump had withdrawn, on his first day in office. Read more »
Biden officials are reviewing comments made in response to a proposal that would grant coal ash disposal permits without review to some state and tribal sites, and plan to issue a final rule. Read more »
EPA is in the process of setting standards for several industries, without changing how anticipated pollution from a new facility is calculated as the Trump administration has outlined. Read more »
The Biden administration said it would issue guidance in the fall that would supercede a Trump-era policy directing agencies to scale back their climate analysis in environmental reviews. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew a plantwide permit for Limetree Bay refinery, whose operations disproportionately affect poor communities on St. Croix. The Trump administration, which issued the permit in December 2020, based the pollution levels on the operations of an old refinery that processed more than twice as much oil. Read more »
The Biden administration submitted the Kigali Amendment, an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol that phases down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), for Senate approval. The Trump administration declined to transmit the treaty to the Senate for a vote. Read more »
Instructs Interior Department scientists to use all climate models, including ones suggesting fewer impacts. Read more »
The Biden administration is reexamining a Trump proposed rule that would allow manufacturers to use alternative standards to test small-motor efficiency. Read more »
The Energy Department has delayed updating 25 energy-efficiency rules Read more »
The Biden administration reestablished the panel that formulates the social cost of carbon, an estimate for the damage caused by climate change for federal cost-benefit analyses, placing the interim figure at $51 per ton of CO2 released. While a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the administration from using the cost in permitting, regulatory and investment decisions, the 5th Circuit issued a stay of that ruling on March 16, 2022. Read more »
Lifted the summertime ban on a gasoline-ethanol blend linked to smog formation. Read more »
Dismantled the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment. Read more »
The Energy Department reinstated an Obama-era rule that would require that bulbs produce at least 45 lumens per watt -- an amount of light generated by any LED lightbulb. The Trump administration reversed the rule shortly before it was set to take effect, on Jan. 1, 2020. Read more »
The Energy Department finalized a rule making lightbulbs more efficient, reversing a Trump policy. The regulations affects bulbs used in 2 billion sockets in the U.S., from track lighting to candle-shaped bulbs installed in wall sconces. Read more »
The Biden administration tightened fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for the nation’s cars, pickup trucks and SUVs that were weakened by Trump, to reach an average of roughly 49 miles per gallon by 2026. Read more »
EPA added 1-bromopropane (1-BP), a solvent linked to neurological damage, to the list of regulated hazardous air pollutants. Read more »
At the request of the Pembina Pipeline Corp., the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission vacated its approval of the Jordan Cove Energy Project, a natural gas export terminal, after the company failed to obtain the necessary state permits. Read more »
The Biden administration is reviewing a Trump rule requiring a comparative analysis of the relative benefits and burdens of potential energy conservation standards for appliances. Read more »
The Biden administration reversed a rule granting manufacturers a waiver from uniform energy-efficiency test procedures. Read more »
After environmentalists sued over the Trump administration’s refusal to finalize an Obama-era rule, EPA agreed to compel natural gas processing plants to start public reporting of toxic chemicals they release. Read more »
Removed the EPA Environmental Appeals Board’s authority to consider environmental justice challenges related to clean air, clean water or waste-permit decisions. Read more »
Trump stalled a rule to limit landfill methane emissions. Biden restored it soon after a federal court ruling throwing out the Trump action. Read more »
Biden officials rescinded a rule that restricted which public health benefits could be factored into new air rules. Read more »
EPA finalized standards in time for a court-ordered deadline that reduced cross-state air pollution involving soot and smog contributors. Read more »
On April 5, 2021, a federal court vacated the Trump-era policy that curbs CO2 only in sectors that account for at least 3 percent of U.S. emissions. Read more »
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Trump-era determination that the 175 million-ton expansion of a mining operation outside of Billings, Mont. could proceed, on the grounds that officials did not properly analyze its climate impacts. Read more »
Biden officials indicated that they will propose a rule by September 2022 to inform consumers about fuel-efficient replacement tires. The Trump administration delayed and then withdrew the proposal. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed imposing requirements to control methane leaks across the oil and gas industry, including establishing standards for old wells, requiring stringent leak monitoring and the capture of natural gas emissions from drilling operations. Read more »
The EPA announced that it would reconsider National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which establish acceptable levels of smog-forming ozone. In December 2020, the Trump administration declined to tighten ozone standards. Read more »
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration wrongly denied listing the Joshua Tree under the Endangered Species Act as threatened, due to climate change. Read more »
The Biden administration revived a proposal to impose energy conservation standards on manufactured housing that were withdrawn under Trump. It is unclear if the new standards will be as stringent as those in the Obama-era proposed rule. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed revoking this rule, which makes it more difficult to hold proxy and shareholder votes on environmental, social and governance grounds. Read more »
The Biden administration is reconsidering a Trump proposal to withdraw test procedures for conventional cooking tops Read more »
On March 30 2021, the Biden administration proposed overhauling a Trump rule that made it more difficult to impose stricter energy-efficiency rules, known as the “process rule.” Read more »
Scaled back measures oil and gas producers have to take to control air pollution. Read more »
The Biden administration is reconsidering a rule exempting some clothes washers and dryers from current energy- and water-efficiency standards. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed reversing a Trump-era rule that prevents environmental, social and government funds from being the default in 401(k) investments. Read more »
Loosened a Clinton-era rule aimed at limiting toxic emissions from major emitters. Read more »
EPA has submitted a rule for inter-agency review that would replace a Trump-era rule reducing reporting requirements for hazardous pollutants issuing from power plants. Read more »
Withdrew the legal justification for a 2012 rule limiting mercury emissions from power plants. Read more »
Biden officials are reviewing the Trump administration’s move to withdraw an Obama-era rule requiring the detection and repair of hydroflourocarbon leaks from major appliances. Read more »
A federal judge in Montana district court reinstated a Obama-era moratorium on federal coal leasing, ordering the Bureau of Land Management to do a more thorough environmentalanalysis. The Trump administration lifted the moratorium through Secretarial Order 3348, which Biden officials rescinded. Read more »
Scaled back limits on methane emissions from drilling on public lands. Read more »
EPA is reconsidering the Trump administration’s denial of petitions from Maryland and New York to regulate air pollution coming from upwind states. Read more »
Relaxed air pollution regulations for a handful of power plants that burn coal mining waste Read more »
Reversed stricter emission standards for large, publicly owned sewage treatment plants. Read more »
The Biden administration revoked a rule that weakened energy-efficiency standards for dishwashers. Read more »
The Biden administration reversed Trump’s interpretive rule that withdrew efficiency standards for residential furnaces, commercial water heaters and gas appliances. Read more »
The Biden administration revoked a rule that relaxed efficiency standards for showerheads, letting them use unlimited amounts of water. Read more »
Biden signed a Congressional Review Act resolution, which passed both chambers, restoring a 2016 rule requiring oil and gas companies detect methane leaks and repair then. Read more »
Revised a program to make it easier for new power plants to avoid emissions regulations. Read more »
Weakened a 2016 rule tightening air pollution limits on offshore operations. Read more »
Made changes to a program aimed at curbing emissions from new or modified industrial facilities. Read more »
The rule streamlines pre-construction approval for minor sources of pollution on Indian Country. Read more »
Exempted large animal farms from having to report risks to state and local officials. Read more »
Revised commercial and industrial incineration standards to address industry concerns. Read more »
Allows petroleum refineries more easily to flare gas and conduct other activities. Read more »
New 44
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
The Inflation Reduction Act provides roughly $385 billion to address climate change and speed the shift to clean energy, including $260 billion in clean energy tax credits, $80 billion for rebates for electric vehicles, home energy efficiency upgrades and $1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Read more »
President Biden doubled funding for the Building Rresilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, bringing its budget to $2.3 billion. The program, started under Donald Trump, aims to protect communities from climate disasters before they strike. Read more »
The Department of the Navy adopted a blueprint to reduce the equivalent of CO2 emissions from 1 million cars through natural sequestration on Navy-owned lands by 2027, and establish climate-resilient, cyber-secure microgrids. Read more »
The Transportation Department announced that it would provide $6.4 billion in funds under the bipartisan infrastructure bill to states. The program has few requirements, only calling for states to spend the money on programs aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Read more »
The Energy Department announced that it would provide $6 billion in funds under the bipartisan infrastructire bill to support struggling nuclear plants. Read more »
Biden officials developed the first “building performance standards” for federal facilities, which will take effect in April 2023. Read more »
The Biden administration auctioned off more than 488,000 acres of offshore wind leases in the Atlantic Ocean, netting $4.37 billion. The total energy that could be generated from the leases, an estimated 7,000 megawatts, would be enough to power 2 million homes. Read more »
The U.S. Army set two major climate goals -- a 50 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and net-zero emissions by 2050 --as well as a plan to achieve them. Read more »
The Agriculture Department announced that it would invest $1 billion in climate-smart commodities and practices through its Commodity Credit Corporation. Read more »
Since Biden took office the EPA has issued proposed or final rules for hazardous air pollutants stemming from copper smelting, cyanide chemicals,carbon black, refractory products, and polyurethane foam
The Energy Department established the office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to support up to $20 billion in projects with funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
President Biden signed an executive order calling for the federal government to run on all clean power by 2030, switch to zero-emission cars and light trucks by 2035, and make federal buildings carbon neutral by 2045. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management announced it would analyze the national greenhouse gas emissions of all new oil and gas leases, and the social cost of those emissions, in its environmental impact statements. Read more »
The Biden administration issued the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on climate change, as well as a Defense climate risk analysis, and launched efforts at the Department of Homeland Security to address climate-related challenges including an uptick in migration to the United States. Read more »
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued a climate action plan six months after signing Secretarial Order 3399. That order established a climate task force and instructing the department to prioritize environmental justice concerns, tribal rights and scientific transparency in decisions through the National Environmental Policy Act. Read more »
The National Flood Insurance Program instituted a more equitable pricing system for policies that would take climate risk into account. The change raises the premiums for most homeowners, including on the coasts and in flood-prone areas, while reducing them for some. Read more »
EPA finalized a rule phasing down the production and import of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air conditioning, 85 percent by 2036. Read more »
President Biden signed an executive order calling for half of all new cars and light trucks sold in 2030 to be electric or plug-in hybrids. Read more »
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration notified the pipeline industry that they’re legally required to fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhous gas, in their pipelines and pipeline facilities under the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act. Companies must update their maintenance and operations plans as a result. Read more »
President Biden tasked his top climate and economic advisers with developing a strategy for assessing climate-related financial risks to government programs, assets and liabilities within 120 days. Read more »
Agriculture Secretary issued a plan to spur ‘climate-smart’ farming and forestry strategies on May 20, 2021. Read more »
President Biden pledged the U.S. would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 50 and 52 percent, compared to 2005 levels, by the end of the decade. Read more »
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established the Defense Climate Working Group to incorporate climate risk analysis into all of its operations and assess how it can curb the department’s greenhouse gas emissions. Read more »
President Biden mandated buying clean and zero-emission vehicles for the federal fleet. The administration set targets for the 2027 and 2035 fleet on Dec. 8, 2021. Read more »
President Biden ordered national security agencies to report within 90 days on integrating climate change into their work. The agencies submitted their reports to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, but did not release them to the public. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed strengthening efficiency standards for household gas-powered furnaces. The update would effectively phase out older “non-condensing” furnaces that burn more gas. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed tightening efficiency standards for commercial gas water heaters. The Obama administration proposed similar standards in 2016, which were blocked under Donald Trump. Read more »
The Biden administration is seeking heightened energy efficiency standards for pool heaters, saying it will benefit consumers if finalized. Read more »
Would mandate that certain room air conditioners become more efficient, which regulators estimate will save consumers money over time on utility costs. Read more »
EPA proposal expands the implementation of the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone. It covers additional states -- California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming -- as well as industrial sources such as pulp and paper mills, cement kilns and boilers and furnaces in iron and steel mills. Read more »
The proposal takes aim at tailpipe pollution from new tractor-trailers, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles that form smog, along with emissions that warm the planet. Read more »
President Biden announced the creation of a coalition of 33 state and local governments that will work with the Energy Department and labor unions to cut emissions from homes and commercial buildings. The goal is for each participant to produce new regulations and legislation on building energy peformance standards by April 2024. Read more »
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is taking comment on whether it should restrict power companies’ ability to force customers to finance the work of utility trade groups that advocate on behalf of fossil fuels, including the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association. Read more »
President Biden launched a government-wide strategy Monday to combat extreme heat, including the development of new federal labor standards aimed at protecting workers from rising temperatures linked to climate change. Read more »
The Biden administration set a goal of replacing all traditional jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, by boosting fuel production from waste and plants. Read more »
The Federal Insurance Office requested public comment on how it could assess climate change’s impact on the insurance sector and how it could help insurers address these financial risks. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management said it would seek public comment on how to assess “the potential environmental, social and cultural impacts of the coal program” it operates. Read more »
President Biden instructed his deputies to consider imposing new greenhouse gas disclosure requirements on federal suppliers and improve reporting and management requirements for federal lending programs that take climate risk into account. Read more »
President Biden instructed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, in her role as chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, to provide a report in 180 days on what the government should do to integrate climate risk into regulation of the financial sector. Read more »
Biden officials announced the government will develop new Energy Star ratings for electric heat pumps and invest $10 million in research and deployment of heat pump technology. Read more »
President Biden promised to work with Congress to boost annual public climate financing aid for developing countries to $11.4 billion by 2024. Read more »
President Biden proposed spending $35 billion on breakthrough climate technology and $15 billion on climate-related demonstrated projects. Read more »
President Biden proposed an “Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard” that would require utilities to get a percentage of their power from carbon-free sources. Read more »
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management signed off on the final environmental review for Vineyard Wind, an 800-megawatt offshore wind project. Read more »
Easy to overturn 20
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
The Transportation Department finalized a rule to restore California’s waiver to regulate air pollution under the Clean Air Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency took action in March 2020 to do the same. In May 2022, 17 states sued the Biden EPA over its decision. Read more »
The U.S. joined an agreement with other OECD countries that bans any financing of any unabated coal-fired power plants abroad. Read more »
EPA reinstated a 2015 policy curbing pollutants power plants can emit during startup, shutdown and malfunctions, which the Trump administration had rescinded. Read more »
President Biden announced that he would not only resume payments to the Green Climate Fund, which helps poor nations address climate change, but seek to double them to $11.4 billion. Read more »
EPA issued guidance on regional haze standards that supercede an August 2019 policy weaening an Obama-era rule meant to improve air quality in national parks and wilderness areas. Read more »
EPA finalized a rule that replaced a Trump proposal for testing for heavy-duty vehicles and engines that could have led to higher CO2 emissions. Read more »
The EPA finalized a list of more climate-friendly refrigerants that could substitute for hydrofluorocarbons, potent greenhouse gases. Read more »
EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the agency would resume funding the U.N. Foundation’s Clean Cooking Alliance, after Trump officials cut a $1.1 million grant to the group in 2017. Read more »
President Biden rejoined the 2015 Paris accord, from which Donald Trump had withdrawn, on his first day in office. Read more »
Biden officials are reviewing comments made in response to a proposal that would grant coal ash disposal permits without review to some state and tribal sites, and plan to issue a final rule. Read more »
EPA is in the process of setting standards for several industries, without changing how anticipated pollution from a new facility is calculated as the Trump administration has outlined. Read more »
The Biden administration said it would issue guidance in the fall that would supercede a Trump-era policy directing agencies to scale back their climate analysis in environmental reviews. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew a plantwide permit for Limetree Bay refinery, whose operations disproportionately affect poor communities on St. Croix. The Trump administration, which issued the permit in December 2020, based the pollution levels on the operations of an old refinery that processed more than twice as much oil. Read more »
The Biden administration submitted the Kigali Amendment, an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol that phases down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), for Senate approval. The Trump administration declined to transmit the treaty to the Senate for a vote. Read more »
Instructs Interior Department scientists to use all climate models, including ones suggesting fewer impacts. Read more »
The Biden administration is reexamining a Trump proposed rule that would allow manufacturers to use alternative standards to test small-motor efficiency. Read more »
The Energy Department has delayed updating 25 energy-efficiency rules Read more »
The Biden administration reestablished the panel that formulates the social cost of carbon, an estimate for the damage caused by climate change for federal cost-benefit analyses, placing the interim figure at $51 per ton of CO2 released. While a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the administration from using the cost in permitting, regulatory and investment decisions, the 5th Circuit issued a stay of that ruling on March 16, 2022. Read more »
Lifted the summertime ban on a gasoline-ethanol blend linked to smog formation. Read more »
Dismantled the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment. Read more »
Medium 34
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
The Energy Department reinstated an Obama-era rule that would require that bulbs produce at least 45 lumens per watt -- an amount of light generated by any LED lightbulb. The Trump administration reversed the rule shortly before it was set to take effect, on Jan. 1, 2020. Read more »
The Energy Department finalized a rule making lightbulbs more efficient, reversing a Trump policy. The regulations affects bulbs used in 2 billion sockets in the U.S., from track lighting to candle-shaped bulbs installed in wall sconces. Read more »
The Biden administration tightened fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for the nation’s cars, pickup trucks and SUVs that were weakened by Trump, to reach an average of roughly 49 miles per gallon by 2026. Read more »
EPA added 1-bromopropane (1-BP), a solvent linked to neurological damage, to the list of regulated hazardous air pollutants. Read more »
At the request of the Pembina Pipeline Corp., the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission vacated its approval of the Jordan Cove Energy Project, a natural gas export terminal, after the company failed to obtain the necessary state permits. Read more »
The Biden administration is reviewing a Trump rule requiring a comparative analysis of the relative benefits and burdens of potential energy conservation standards for appliances. Read more »
The Biden administration reversed a rule granting manufacturers a waiver from uniform energy-efficiency test procedures. Read more »
After environmentalists sued over the Trump administration’s refusal to finalize an Obama-era rule, EPA agreed to compel natural gas processing plants to start public reporting of toxic chemicals they release. Read more »
Removed the EPA Environmental Appeals Board’s authority to consider environmental justice challenges related to clean air, clean water or waste-permit decisions. Read more »
Trump stalled a rule to limit landfill methane emissions. Biden restored it soon after a federal court ruling throwing out the Trump action. Read more »
Biden officials rescinded a rule that restricted which public health benefits could be factored into new air rules. Read more »
EPA finalized standards in time for a court-ordered deadline that reduced cross-state air pollution involving soot and smog contributors. Read more »
On April 5, 2021, a federal court vacated the Trump-era policy that curbs CO2 only in sectors that account for at least 3 percent of U.S. emissions. Read more »
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Trump-era determination that the 175 million-ton expansion of a mining operation outside of Billings, Mont. could proceed, on the grounds that officials did not properly analyze its climate impacts. Read more »
Biden officials indicated that they will propose a rule by September 2022 to inform consumers about fuel-efficient replacement tires. The Trump administration delayed and then withdrew the proposal. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed imposing requirements to control methane leaks across the oil and gas industry, including establishing standards for old wells, requiring stringent leak monitoring and the capture of natural gas emissions from drilling operations. Read more »
The EPA announced that it would reconsider National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which establish acceptable levels of smog-forming ozone. In December 2020, the Trump administration declined to tighten ozone standards. Read more »
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration wrongly denied listing the Joshua Tree under the Endangered Species Act as threatened, due to climate change. Read more »
The Biden administration revived a proposal to impose energy conservation standards on manufactured housing that were withdrawn under Trump. It is unclear if the new standards will be as stringent as those in the Obama-era proposed rule. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed revoking this rule, which makes it more difficult to hold proxy and shareholder votes on environmental, social and governance grounds. Read more »
The Biden administration is reconsidering a Trump proposal to withdraw test procedures for conventional cooking tops Read more »
On March 30 2021, the Biden administration proposed overhauling a Trump rule that made it more difficult to impose stricter energy-efficiency rules, known as the “process rule.” Read more »
Scaled back measures oil and gas producers have to take to control air pollution. Read more »
The Biden administration is reconsidering a rule exempting some clothes washers and dryers from current energy- and water-efficiency standards. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed reversing a Trump-era rule that prevents environmental, social and government funds from being the default in 401(k) investments. Read more »
Loosened a Clinton-era rule aimed at limiting toxic emissions from major emitters. Read more »
EPA has submitted a rule for inter-agency review that would replace a Trump-era rule reducing reporting requirements for hazardous pollutants issuing from power plants. Read more »
Withdrew the legal justification for a 2012 rule limiting mercury emissions from power plants. Read more »
Biden officials are reviewing the Trump administration’s move to withdraw an Obama-era rule requiring the detection and repair of hydroflourocarbon leaks from major appliances. Read more »
A federal judge in Montana district court reinstated a Obama-era moratorium on federal coal leasing, ordering the Bureau of Land Management to do a more thorough environmentalanalysis. The Trump administration lifted the moratorium through Secretarial Order 3348, which Biden officials rescinded. Read more »
Scaled back limits on methane emissions from drilling on public lands. Read more »
EPA is reconsidering the Trump administration’s denial of petitions from Maryland and New York to regulate air pollution coming from upwind states. Read more »
Relaxed air pollution regulations for a handful of power plants that burn coal mining waste Read more »
Reversed stricter emission standards for large, publicly owned sewage treatment plants. Read more »
Difficult 11
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Biden administration revoked a rule that weakened energy-efficiency standards for dishwashers. Read more »
The Biden administration reversed Trump’s interpretive rule that withdrew efficiency standards for residential furnaces, commercial water heaters and gas appliances. Read more »
The Biden administration revoked a rule that relaxed efficiency standards for showerheads, letting them use unlimited amounts of water. Read more »
Biden signed a Congressional Review Act resolution, which passed both chambers, restoring a 2016 rule requiring oil and gas companies detect methane leaks and repair then. Read more »
Revised a program to make it easier for new power plants to avoid emissions regulations. Read more »
Weakened a 2016 rule tightening air pollution limits on offshore operations. Read more »
Made changes to a program aimed at curbing emissions from new or modified industrial facilities. Read more »
The rule streamlines pre-construction approval for minor sources of pollution on Indian Country. Read more »
Exempted large animal farms from having to report risks to state and local officials. Read more »
Revised commercial and industrial incineration standards to address industry concerns. Read more »
Allows petroleum refineries more easily to flare gas and conduct other activities. Read more »
Chemical safety
From plastic water bottles to farmworker pesticide exposure to chemical dangers for infants and children, the Trump administration favored industry over consumer health. At least 14 chemical safety laws are under review by the Biden administration to restore lost protections.
New 7
Easy to overturn 7
Medium 10
Difficult 2
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Biden administration announced that it would award more than $254 million to clean up polluted sites across the country, with money provided under the bipartisan infrastructure law. Read more »
Biden officials announced that before it registers any new active ingredient in a pesticide it will evaluate its impact on species listed under the Endangered Species Act, and their habitat, and will consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service as appropriate. Read more »
The Biden administration said it had reached an agreement to phase out use of the chemical, which had been shown to harm an array of endangered species. Read more »
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed classifying polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals,” as hazardous substances. Read more »
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed banning the import and use of chrysotile asbestos, a carcinogen used in chlorine and other manufactured products. Read more »
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it would conduct a full environmental impact statement for a massive petrochemical complex Formosa Plastics Group plans to build near historically Black communities in Louisiana. Read more »
EPA proposed the first-ever reporting requirements to better understand sources and quantities of so-called “forever chemicals.” Read more »
The EPA banned the use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to neurological damage in children, on food crops. The move came in response to a ruling by the Ninth Circuit that the Trump administration had improperly moved to keep it on the market. Read more »
Biden officials withdrew a guidance document that subjected the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical toxicity assessments subject to review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum (Minn.) Chellie Pingree (Maine) and Diana DeGette (Colo.) pushed for the guidance to be abolished. Read more »
EPA withdrew Trump-era guidance that Biden officials say “weakened” the agency’s ability to oversee certain uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Read more »
Trump reversed a restriction on platic water bottle sales in national parks. Biden is seeking to phase out all single-use plastic products on Interior Department-managed lands by 2032. Read more »
Biden officials said they would expand the way they evaluate risks posed by toxic solvents used in dry cleaning, known as trichlorethylene. Read more »
Biden officials are reviewing restrictions in an interim pesticide registration for pyrethroids, but also face a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity. Read more »
Unsuccessful effort to block Agricultural Worker Protection Standard. Read more »
EPA announced on Jan. 25, 2022 that it would reconsider the 2020 decision not to regulate ethylene oxide emissions from chemical plants as a hazardous air pollutant. EPA’s scientific review suggests that this chemical is more toxic than previously understood, and could pose a cancer risk. On Feb. 25, the agency said it would use its 2016 toxicity analysis to guide the review. Read more »
Biden officials finished a risk evaluation of NMP, a toxic chemical used in paint strippers, so it could move to restrict it after the Trump administration reversed a proposed ban. Read more »
Under Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed establishing a mandatory reporting program on asbestos use and exposure under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Activists had sued after the Trump administration had refused to take this step. Read more »
In accordance with Executive Order 13990, Biden officials are reassessing a rule that rescinded a chemical disaster rule aimed at improving safety at sites with dangerous chemicals. Read more »
Eased compliance requirements for storing volatile organic liquids, including petroleum products Read more »
Biden officials are not implementing a pesticide spraying rule, narrower than the Obama-era rule, that the Trump administration adopted after a court loss. The agency has not withdrawn the Trump rule, but have indicated that it will solicit comment on reconsidering part of it. Read more »
Biden officials are considering whether to revise a Trump-era rule that limited the use of the deadly chemical methylene chloride but exempted commercial uses. Read more »
Limited the scope of how the EPA evaluates the risks of toxic chemicals available on the market.
Both the Trump and Biden administration have created loopholes in how chemical plants and military bases report their emissions of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. On Jan. 20, Earthjustice and other groups sued in federal court in an effort to strike those exceptions. Read more »
The Trump administration reclassified the definition of high-level radioactive waste, which eased the federal government’s cleanup obligations for aging nuclear tanks in Washington, South Carolina, Idaho and New York. Read more »
Biden officials proposed strengthening requirements for facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop risk management plans in case of accidental releases, which were weakened under the Trump administration. Read more »
Revised how the government gauges pesticide effects on endangered species.
New 7
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
The Biden administration announced that it would award more than $254 million to clean up polluted sites across the country, with money provided under the bipartisan infrastructure law. Read more »
Biden officials announced that before it registers any new active ingredient in a pesticide it will evaluate its impact on species listed under the Endangered Species Act, and their habitat, and will consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service as appropriate. Read more »
The Biden administration said it had reached an agreement to phase out use of the chemical, which had been shown to harm an array of endangered species. Read more »
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed classifying polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals,” as hazardous substances. Read more »
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed banning the import and use of chrysotile asbestos, a carcinogen used in chlorine and other manufactured products. Read more »
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it would conduct a full environmental impact statement for a massive petrochemical complex Formosa Plastics Group plans to build near historically Black communities in Louisiana. Read more »
EPA proposed the first-ever reporting requirements to better understand sources and quantities of so-called “forever chemicals.” Read more »
Easy to overturn 7
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
The EPA banned the use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to neurological damage in children, on food crops. The move came in response to a ruling by the Ninth Circuit that the Trump administration had improperly moved to keep it on the market. Read more »
Biden officials withdrew a guidance document that subjected the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical toxicity assessments subject to review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum (Minn.) Chellie Pingree (Maine) and Diana DeGette (Colo.) pushed for the guidance to be abolished. Read more »
EPA withdrew Trump-era guidance that Biden officials say “weakened” the agency’s ability to oversee certain uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Read more »
Trump reversed a restriction on platic water bottle sales in national parks. Biden is seeking to phase out all single-use plastic products on Interior Department-managed lands by 2032. Read more »
Biden officials said they would expand the way they evaluate risks posed by toxic solvents used in dry cleaning, known as trichlorethylene. Read more »
Biden officials are reviewing restrictions in an interim pesticide registration for pyrethroids, but also face a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity. Read more »
Unsuccessful effort to block Agricultural Worker Protection Standard. Read more »
Medium 10
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
EPA announced on Jan. 25, 2022 that it would reconsider the 2020 decision not to regulate ethylene oxide emissions from chemical plants as a hazardous air pollutant. EPA’s scientific review suggests that this chemical is more toxic than previously understood, and could pose a cancer risk. On Feb. 25, the agency said it would use its 2016 toxicity analysis to guide the review. Read more »
Biden officials finished a risk evaluation of NMP, a toxic chemical used in paint strippers, so it could move to restrict it after the Trump administration reversed a proposed ban. Read more »
Under Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed establishing a mandatory reporting program on asbestos use and exposure under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Activists had sued after the Trump administration had refused to take this step. Read more »
In accordance with Executive Order 13990, Biden officials are reassessing a rule that rescinded a chemical disaster rule aimed at improving safety at sites with dangerous chemicals. Read more »
Eased compliance requirements for storing volatile organic liquids, including petroleum products Read more »
Biden officials are not implementing a pesticide spraying rule, narrower than the Obama-era rule, that the Trump administration adopted after a court loss. The agency has not withdrawn the Trump rule, but have indicated that it will solicit comment on reconsidering part of it. Read more »
Biden officials are considering whether to revise a Trump-era rule that limited the use of the deadly chemical methylene chloride but exempted commercial uses. Read more »
Limited the scope of how the EPA evaluates the risks of toxic chemicals available on the market.
Both the Trump and Biden administration have created loopholes in how chemical plants and military bases report their emissions of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. On Jan. 20, Earthjustice and other groups sued in federal court in an effort to strike those exceptions. Read more »
The Trump administration reclassified the definition of high-level radioactive waste, which eased the federal government’s cleanup obligations for aging nuclear tanks in Washington, South Carolina, Idaho and New York. Read more »
Difficult 2
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
Biden officials proposed strengthening requirements for facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop risk management plans in case of accidental releases, which were weakened under the Trump administration. Read more »
Revised how the government gauges pesticide effects on endangered species.
Drilling and extraction
The 61 rollbacks Trump enacted on drilling, mining and logging ranged from weakened oil worker safety on offshore platforms to extracting fossil fuels from public lands. Biden announced a moratorium on oil and gas drilling on Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and is reassessing a range of extractive activities, including expanded timber operations in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest and coal leasing out west in the Lower 48.
New 19
Easy to overturn 40
Medium 20
Difficult 7
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Interior Department announce that it would not move forward with two major lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, “as a result of delays due to factors including conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.” Read more »
The Biden administration announced plans to steer $3.1 billion from a bipartisan infrastructure law to boost manufacturing of batteries and components domestically. The efforts include creating “new, retrofitted and expanded commercial facilities,” among other measures.
The Interior Department announced it would provide nearly $725 million to 22 states and the Navajo Nation to clean up abandoned coal mines. Read more »
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the Biden administration would cancel three old-growth timber sales in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. It would still allow Alaska Natives and small-scale timber operators to selectively log some old-growth trees. The move ends large-scale harvest of old growth trees on national forests. Read more »
Biden officials canceled second-quarter lease sales, as part of its ongoing pause on new federal leasing. Read more »
The Interior Department postponed quarterly lease sales in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming “to confirm the adequacy of underlying environmental analysis.” Read more »
Biden officials instructed that any activities in roadless areas must undergo special review, effectively barring logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Read more »
President Biden established a new interagency council to devise economic strategies to shift communities away from fossil fuels. Read more »
President Biden instructed all agencies to identify existing fossil fuel subsidies and eliminate them from their FY 2021 budget request. Read more »
After pausing new oil and gas leasing for nearly seven months, Biden officials announced they would hold Lease Sale 527 in the fall and auctions in Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico in February 2022 to comply with a preliminary injunction ordered by a Louisiana judge. Read more »
In Secretarial Order 3395, Biden officials subjected all major Interior Department decisions, including awarding new permits, to approval by a senior political appointee. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management will reconsider the climate impacts of previous administrations’ decisions to sell nearly 4 million acres of oil and gas leases in Western states. The move is part of an agreement that settles three cases brought by climate advocates arguing that the government’s environmental analysis of the lease sales was incomplete. Read more »
Proposals would codify policies aimed improving safety and environmental protections in offshore operations that involve novel technologies and equipment used in high pressure or high temperature situations. Read more »
In a 3-2 vote, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it will consider how pipelines and related projects affect climate change and environmental justice communities. The commission later said it would seek further public feedback on the new policies. Read more »
Proposed banning oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon for 20 years. Read more »
The Biden administration released a report calling for higher royalty and bonding rates for drilling oil and gas from federal lands and waters. Read more »
The Biden administration announced plans to undertake a new environmental review of drilling within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The move came two months after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland suspended nearly a dozen oil and gas leases issued under President Trump, saying that an “insufficient analysis” had been done before the sale.
The Biden administration has proposed withdrawing 4,560 acres of land that has been exposed by the retreat of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier from mining claims. Since 1910 the glacier has retreated nearly 9,200 feet due to climate change, and it continues to shrink. Read more »
President Biden proposed spending $16 billion on plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, and restoring lands that had been damaged by mining. Interior issued guidance on Jan. 5, 2022 on how states can apply for the funds. Read more »
Interior canceled Cook Inlet OCS Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258, off Alaska’s southcentral coast, saying it conflicted with Biden’s EO 14008. The department formally canceled the sale on May 11, 2022 “due to a lack of industry interest in leasing in the area.” Read more »
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration revised its enforcement rules against operators that do not comply with farm tap regulations in November 2021. But the rule will not take effect until May 16, 2022. Read more »
President Biden restored the boundaries of two national monuments in Utah shrunk by Donald Trump, expanding Bears Ears National Monument to 1.36 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to 1.78 million acres. Read more »
President Biden ordered a review of President Trump’s move to shrink two national monuments in Utah and call for changes to other national monuments. Read more »
Biden officials withdrew a rule overturning higher federal royalties for oil, gas and coal leases adopted at the end of the Obama administration. Read more »
Biden officials let a guidance memo that sped up oil and gas leasing on Bureau of Land Management lands expire. Read more »
The Biden administration reinstated a policy that would require users of public lands to offset their environmental damage. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule weakening standards governing oil and gas exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean. As a result, the Obama-era rule adopted in 2016 remains in effect. Read more »
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on April 16, 2021 signed Secretarial Order 3398, which reversed 12 secretarial orders issued under President Trump promoting fossil fuel development on public lands and waters. Read more »
The Interior Department revoked then-Secretary Zinke’s Secretarial Order 3350 when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued Secretarial Order 3398. Read more »
Biden officials issued a new solicitor’s opinion on April 9, 2021 to override M-Opinion 37059, which prioritized offshore energy uses above other activities, including fishing. Read more »
The Interior Department revised guidance issued under the Trump administration, which opened most of the Arctic Ocean and parts of the Atlantic Ocean open to oil and gas leasing. Read more »
Canceled move to ban mining on 1.3 million acres of California Desert National Conservation Lands. Read more »
The Biden administration terminated a proposal scaling back protections in the plan Read more »
Biden officials rescinded a proposal that would have allowed mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP to mine copper in Oak Flat, Ariz. Read more »
Biden officials reversed Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s move to award 10-year grazing permits to Hammond Ranches, whose owners had been convicted of arson in 2012 Read more »
Interior officials rescinded the Record of Decision for a region-wide lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more »
President Biden reversed a Trump-era executive order instructing agencies to speed up the development of energy projects such as pipelines. Read more »
President Biden rescinded the 2017 cross-permit Trump granted for the Keystone XL pipeline. Read more »
Biden officials are reassessing a Trump-era policy scaling back rules governing oil pipeline spills. Read more »
Biden announced he would initiate a 20-year withdrawal of lands within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, after Trump officials had proposed to lease more than 2,300 oil and gas wells in the Greater Chaco area. Read more »
The Biden White House is reviewing how the Trump administration changed how regulators consider the greenhouse gas impacts of pipelines in environmental reviews. Read more »
EPA proposed invoking its authority under the Clean Water Act to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay, thereby blocking construction of a controversal gold and copper mine. Read more »
Proposed overhauling grazing on Bureau of Land Management lands. Read more »
Proposal to reduce the financial assurances oil and gas firms leasing offshore rights must supply. Read more »
The U.S, Army Corps of Engineers approved construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, but PHMSA issued notice of a potential violation on May 3, 2021. Read more »
Biden officials extended the comment period for a draft management plan affecting 13 million acres of public land in Alaska by three months. Read more »
The Biden administration extended the comment period for this proposed rule, which would allow ranchers to make nonmonetary settlements when they overgraze or illegally graze on public lands, by 60 days beyond the Feb. 16, 2021 deadline for public input. Read more »
The Interior Department is revising a five-year offshore leasing plan to expand energy production in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Read more »
Proposal would make it easier to harvest timber on BLM land Read more »
Proposed speeding up the issuing of oil and gas permits on national forest land. Read more »
Proposed making it easier to locate minerals on national forest land. Read more »
Proposed reducing federal fees for non-energy minerals such as potash and phosphate. Read more »
Extended 20-year authorization for natural gas exports to non-trade agreement countries. Read more »
Allowed seismic testing in Big Cypress National Reserve without a permit. Read more »
Executive order to encourage logging on federal lands. Read more »
Allowed state and tribal officials to lay claim to 1.3 million acres of Alaska land for development. Read more »
Moved international border-crossing permit decisions to the White House, to speed pipelines. Read more »
Removes protections from 229,715 acres in Alaska to allow for minerals extraction. Read more »
Instructed agencies to use coastal, oceanic and Great Lake resources for energy production. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management reversed the Trump administration’s decision to expand drilling on the largest swath of federal land, in Alaska, by 7 million acres and reverted to the plan the Obama administration adopted in 2013. That plan allows drilling on roughly half the reserve, while putting the other half off limits to development. Read more »
Biden officials canceled Twin Metals’ mining leases near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, reversing a Trump-era decision. Read more »
A federal court reversed the Trump administration’s authorization of a petroleum company, Hilcorp Alaska LLC, to “take” marine mammals incidental to oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management published a notice of intent in the Federal Register that it will revisit the management plans that eliminated most of the “Sagebrush Focal Areas” created to protect the imperiled sage grouse. Read more »
Opens 9.7 million acres in western Alaska to mineral leasing. Read more »
Biden paused an Office of Comptroller of the Currency rule finalized on Jan. 14, 2021 that barred banks from refusing to finance projects for certain sectors, such as fossil fuels. It was set to take effect April 1, 2021. Read more »
Proposed limiting protests on federal timber sales. Read more »
Would make more than 13 million acres in the Western Bering Sea open to development Read more »
The Biden administration issued a draft environmental impact statement for ConocoPhillips Willow Project in Alaska, which could produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil a day during its 30-year operation, which did not indicate whether it will approve or halt the project. Read more »
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack proposed a rule that would reinstate a Clinton-era policy prohibiting road-building and logging in more than 9.3 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed rescinding a rule allowing the bulk transport of liquified natural gas in rail tank cars. Read more »
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included language aimed at ensuring that mining firms paid the cost of cleaning up their operations, but did not include funding. Read more »
Rescinded tighter fracking rules on federal and Indian lands. Read more »
Allowing drilling in Utah’s Labyrinth Canyon, in an area surrounded by wilderness Read more »
The Trump administration reached an agreement with Canadian-owned Midas Gold, over the objections of Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe, to do a partial cleanup of the historical Stibnite Mine Site that clears the way for a massive open-pit gold mine. Read more »
Expanded grazing by amending the Sonoran Desert National Monument Grazing Plan. Read more »
Reduced the requirements that tribes face when they enter into energy agreements involving tribal land/ Read more »
The Center for Biological filed suit on April 27, 2021 over the Trump administration’s approval of a phosphate mining operation by a subsidiary of Bayer. The group argues the government didn’t adequately consider the environmental impacts of the project. Read more »
Determined that coal mining can take place in an area near Bryce Canyon National Park. Read more »
Removed copper filter cake, which contains heavy metals, from EPA’s hazardous waste list. Read more »
The Biden administration has paused the oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Trump officials auctioned off 11 leases to drill on 552,000 acres in the refuge on Jan. 6, 2021, netting more than $12 million, and finalized the leases before Biden took office. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed stricter requirements on fail-safe devices used to prevent oil spills, part of an effort to prevent diasters such as the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010. Read more »
Lifted the ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain. Read more »
Approval for a lithium mine on BLM land that provides habitat for sage grouse, pronghorn antelope and a rare type of springsnail. Read more »
Weakened federal oversight of mine safety and requirements to report safety violations. Read more »
Biden officials are looking at a rule rolling back offshore drilling equipment safety rules adopted after Deepwater Horizon disaster. Read more »
Quickened approvals for small-scale natural gas exports to non-trade agreement countries Read more »
New 19
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
The Interior Department announce that it would not move forward with two major lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, “as a result of delays due to factors including conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.” Read more »
The Biden administration announced plans to steer $3.1 billion from a bipartisan infrastructure law to boost manufacturing of batteries and components domestically. The efforts include creating “new, retrofitted and expanded commercial facilities,” among other measures.
The Interior Department announced it would provide nearly $725 million to 22 states and the Navajo Nation to clean up abandoned coal mines. Read more »
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the Biden administration would cancel three old-growth timber sales in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. It would still allow Alaska Natives and small-scale timber operators to selectively log some old-growth trees. The move ends large-scale harvest of old growth trees on national forests. Read more »
Biden officials canceled second-quarter lease sales, as part of its ongoing pause on new federal leasing. Read more »
The Interior Department postponed quarterly lease sales in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming “to confirm the adequacy of underlying environmental analysis.” Read more »
Biden officials instructed that any activities in roadless areas must undergo special review, effectively barring logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Read more »
President Biden established a new interagency council to devise economic strategies to shift communities away from fossil fuels. Read more »
President Biden instructed all agencies to identify existing fossil fuel subsidies and eliminate them from their FY 2021 budget request. Read more »
After pausing new oil and gas leasing for nearly seven months, Biden officials announced they would hold Lease Sale 527 in the fall and auctions in Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico in February 2022 to comply with a preliminary injunction ordered by a Louisiana judge. Read more »
In Secretarial Order 3395, Biden officials subjected all major Interior Department decisions, including awarding new permits, to approval by a senior political appointee. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management will reconsider the climate impacts of previous administrations’ decisions to sell nearly 4 million acres of oil and gas leases in Western states. The move is part of an agreement that settles three cases brought by climate advocates arguing that the government’s environmental analysis of the lease sales was incomplete. Read more »
Proposals would codify policies aimed improving safety and environmental protections in offshore operations that involve novel technologies and equipment used in high pressure or high temperature situations. Read more »
In a 3-2 vote, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it will consider how pipelines and related projects affect climate change and environmental justice communities. The commission later said it would seek further public feedback on the new policies. Read more »
Proposed banning oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon for 20 years. Read more »
The Biden administration released a report calling for higher royalty and bonding rates for drilling oil and gas from federal lands and waters. Read more »
The Biden administration announced plans to undertake a new environmental review of drilling within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The move came two months after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland suspended nearly a dozen oil and gas leases issued under President Trump, saying that an “insufficient analysis” had been done before the sale.
The Biden administration has proposed withdrawing 4,560 acres of land that has been exposed by the retreat of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier from mining claims. Since 1910 the glacier has retreated nearly 9,200 feet due to climate change, and it continues to shrink. Read more »
President Biden proposed spending $16 billion on plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, and restoring lands that had been damaged by mining. Interior issued guidance on Jan. 5, 2022 on how states can apply for the funds. Read more »
Easy to overturn 40
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Interior canceled Cook Inlet OCS Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258, off Alaska’s southcentral coast, saying it conflicted with Biden’s EO 14008. The department formally canceled the sale on May 11, 2022 “due to a lack of industry interest in leasing in the area.” Read more »
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration revised its enforcement rules against operators that do not comply with farm tap regulations in November 2021. But the rule will not take effect until May 16, 2022. Read more »
President Biden restored the boundaries of two national monuments in Utah shrunk by Donald Trump, expanding Bears Ears National Monument to 1.36 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to 1.78 million acres. Read more »
President Biden ordered a review of President Trump’s move to shrink two national monuments in Utah and call for changes to other national monuments. Read more »
Biden officials withdrew a rule overturning higher federal royalties for oil, gas and coal leases adopted at the end of the Obama administration. Read more »
Biden officials let a guidance memo that sped up oil and gas leasing on Bureau of Land Management lands expire. Read more »
The Biden administration reinstated a policy that would require users of public lands to offset their environmental damage. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule weakening standards governing oil and gas exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean. As a result, the Obama-era rule adopted in 2016 remains in effect. Read more »
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on April 16, 2021 signed Secretarial Order 3398, which reversed 12 secretarial orders issued under President Trump promoting fossil fuel development on public lands and waters. Read more »
The Interior Department revoked then-Secretary Zinke’s Secretarial Order 3350 when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued Secretarial Order 3398. Read more »
Biden officials issued a new solicitor’s opinion on April 9, 2021 to override M-Opinion 37059, which prioritized offshore energy uses above other activities, including fishing. Read more »
The Interior Department revised guidance issued under the Trump administration, which opened most of the Arctic Ocean and parts of the Atlantic Ocean open to oil and gas leasing. Read more »
Canceled move to ban mining on 1.3 million acres of California Desert National Conservation Lands. Read more »
The Biden administration terminated a proposal scaling back protections in the plan Read more »
Biden officials rescinded a proposal that would have allowed mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP to mine copper in Oak Flat, Ariz. Read more »
Biden officials reversed Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s move to award 10-year grazing permits to Hammond Ranches, whose owners had been convicted of arson in 2012 Read more »
Interior officials rescinded the Record of Decision for a region-wide lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more »
President Biden reversed a Trump-era executive order instructing agencies to speed up the development of energy projects such as pipelines. Read more »
President Biden rescinded the 2017 cross-permit Trump granted for the Keystone XL pipeline. Read more »
Biden officials are reassessing a Trump-era policy scaling back rules governing oil pipeline spills. Read more »
Biden announced he would initiate a 20-year withdrawal of lands within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, after Trump officials had proposed to lease more than 2,300 oil and gas wells in the Greater Chaco area. Read more »
The Biden White House is reviewing how the Trump administration changed how regulators consider the greenhouse gas impacts of pipelines in environmental reviews. Read more »
EPA proposed invoking its authority under the Clean Water Act to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay, thereby blocking construction of a controversal gold and copper mine. Read more »
Proposed overhauling grazing on Bureau of Land Management lands. Read more »
Proposal to reduce the financial assurances oil and gas firms leasing offshore rights must supply. Read more »
The U.S, Army Corps of Engineers approved construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, but PHMSA issued notice of a potential violation on May 3, 2021. Read more »
Biden officials extended the comment period for a draft management plan affecting 13 million acres of public land in Alaska by three months. Read more »
The Biden administration extended the comment period for this proposed rule, which would allow ranchers to make nonmonetary settlements when they overgraze or illegally graze on public lands, by 60 days beyond the Feb. 16, 2021 deadline for public input. Read more »
The Interior Department is revising a five-year offshore leasing plan to expand energy production in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Read more »
Proposal would make it easier to harvest timber on BLM land Read more »
Proposed speeding up the issuing of oil and gas permits on national forest land. Read more »
Proposed making it easier to locate minerals on national forest land. Read more »
Proposed reducing federal fees for non-energy minerals such as potash and phosphate. Read more »
Extended 20-year authorization for natural gas exports to non-trade agreement countries. Read more »
Allowed seismic testing in Big Cypress National Reserve without a permit. Read more »
Executive order to encourage logging on federal lands. Read more »
Allowed state and tribal officials to lay claim to 1.3 million acres of Alaska land for development. Read more »
Moved international border-crossing permit decisions to the White House, to speed pipelines. Read more »
Removes protections from 229,715 acres in Alaska to allow for minerals extraction. Read more »
Instructed agencies to use coastal, oceanic and Great Lake resources for energy production. Read more »
Medium 20
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
The Bureau of Land Management reversed the Trump administration’s decision to expand drilling on the largest swath of federal land, in Alaska, by 7 million acres and reverted to the plan the Obama administration adopted in 2013. That plan allows drilling on roughly half the reserve, while putting the other half off limits to development. Read more »
Biden officials canceled Twin Metals’ mining leases near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, reversing a Trump-era decision. Read more »
A federal court reversed the Trump administration’s authorization of a petroleum company, Hilcorp Alaska LLC, to “take” marine mammals incidental to oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management published a notice of intent in the Federal Register that it will revisit the management plans that eliminated most of the “Sagebrush Focal Areas” created to protect the imperiled sage grouse. Read more »
Opens 9.7 million acres in western Alaska to mineral leasing. Read more »
Biden paused an Office of Comptroller of the Currency rule finalized on Jan. 14, 2021 that barred banks from refusing to finance projects for certain sectors, such as fossil fuels. It was set to take effect April 1, 2021. Read more »
Proposed limiting protests on federal timber sales. Read more »
Would make more than 13 million acres in the Western Bering Sea open to development Read more »
The Biden administration issued a draft environmental impact statement for ConocoPhillips Willow Project in Alaska, which could produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil a day during its 30-year operation, which did not indicate whether it will approve or halt the project. Read more »
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack proposed a rule that would reinstate a Clinton-era policy prohibiting road-building and logging in more than 9.3 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed rescinding a rule allowing the bulk transport of liquified natural gas in rail tank cars. Read more »
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included language aimed at ensuring that mining firms paid the cost of cleaning up their operations, but did not include funding. Read more »
Rescinded tighter fracking rules on federal and Indian lands. Read more »
Allowing drilling in Utah’s Labyrinth Canyon, in an area surrounded by wilderness Read more »
The Trump administration reached an agreement with Canadian-owned Midas Gold, over the objections of Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe, to do a partial cleanup of the historical Stibnite Mine Site that clears the way for a massive open-pit gold mine. Read more »
Expanded grazing by amending the Sonoran Desert National Monument Grazing Plan. Read more »
Reduced the requirements that tribes face when they enter into energy agreements involving tribal land/ Read more »
The Center for Biological filed suit on April 27, 2021 over the Trump administration’s approval of a phosphate mining operation by a subsidiary of Bayer. The group argues the government didn’t adequately consider the environmental impacts of the project. Read more »
Determined that coal mining can take place in an area near Bryce Canyon National Park. Read more »
Removed copper filter cake, which contains heavy metals, from EPA’s hazardous waste list. Read more »
Difficult 7
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Biden administration has paused the oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Trump officials auctioned off 11 leases to drill on 552,000 acres in the refuge on Jan. 6, 2021, netting more than $12 million, and finalized the leases before Biden took office. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed stricter requirements on fail-safe devices used to prevent oil spills, part of an effort to prevent diasters such as the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010. Read more »
Lifted the ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain. Read more »
Approval for a lithium mine on BLM land that provides habitat for sage grouse, pronghorn antelope and a rare type of springsnail. Read more »
Weakened federal oversight of mine safety and requirements to report safety violations. Read more »
Biden officials are looking at a rule rolling back offshore drilling equipment safety rules adopted after Deepwater Horizon disaster. Read more »
Quickened approvals for small-scale natural gas exports to non-trade agreement countries Read more »
Infrastructure and permitting
The Trump administration circumvented environmental rules to speed approval of major projects such as a four-lane highway that could crush desert tortoises in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and adopting changes that will curb public input in the development of highways, power plants and incinerators near communities.
New 12
Easy to overturn 22
Medium 6
Difficult 4
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration finalized new requirements to install remote or automatic shut-off valves on all new or replaced onshore pipelines six inches in diameter or greater. Biden officials said this would curb greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental damage in the wake of accidents. Read more »
The federal government will require contractors to use more climate-friendly concrete and asphalt in major projects going forward, a move expected to impact billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. Read more »
Biden officials took steps to speed transmission on the electricity grid, including issuing a new Transportation Department guidance that allows the use of existing highway rights of way for siting transmission lines and new Energy Department funding and loan guarantees for renewable energy transmission projects and ones owned by tribes and Alaska Native Corporations. Read more »
President Biden established a new cadre of workers to help restore landscapes and help communities adapt to climate change. Read more »
President Biden vowed to double offshore wind production by 2030. Read more »
Biden officials announced plans to create new standards to replace millions of underground lead water service lines, while providing $15 billion to help finance the effort. Read more »
FEMA issued a request for information on how to guide potential updates to the National Flood Insurance Program’s flood plain management standards, which have not been changed substantially since 1976. It is also seeking input on better protecting the habitats and populations of threatened and endangered species in the face of these risks. The comment period ended on Dec. 31, 2021. Read more »
Interior issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that would protect eagle populations while permitting complex projects such as wind energy facilities.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defended the Trump administration’s environmental analysis of Enbridge’s Line 3, which runs through Minnesota and has sparked protests from tribal and climate activists. The pipeline transports oil from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wis., a distance of roughly 1,000 miles. The pipeline started operating on Oct. 1, 2021.
Biden officials from the Interior and Defense departments reached an agreement with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to identify two areas for potential offshore wind development in the Pacific Ocean. If fully developed, they could produce up to 4.6 gigawatts of power, enough to power 1.6 million homes. Read more »
President Biden proposed investing $174 billion in electric vehicle charging stations, supply chains and raw materials. Read more »
The Biden administration launched an initiative to expand offshore wind production to 30 gigawatts by 2030 by streamlining permitting, offering low-interest loans and funding research. On Oct. 13, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would hold up to seven lease sales by 2025, in the Gulf of Maine, New York Bight, Central Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore the Carolinas, California and Oregon. Read more »
The Biden administration issued a Solicitor’s Opinion, 37073, which said that the rights to minerals lying under the section of the Missouri River flowing through North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation belongs to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. The DOI solicitor serving under Barack Obama had made a similar determination in 2017, which was reversed under Donald Trump. In 2020, then-DOI Solicitor Dan Jorjani awarded the rights to North Dakota instead. Read more »
Biden officials restored a Clean Water Act veto of a project that will drain and damage Mississippi wetlands. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule that would have allowed large property owners the ability to veto a proposal to add a site to the National Register of Historic Places. Read more »
Ruled it was legal to take sand from a protected area to replenish a beach elsewhere. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew approval granted under the Trump administration allowing the use of radioactive phosphogypsum in government road construction projects. Read more »
Biden officials rescinded a Trump administration proposal changing the way the EPA weighs costs and benefits of environmental regulation. Read more »
Trump officials directed Interior Department to streamline its environmental review documents in Secretarial Order 3355, on Aug. 31, 2017. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland overturned this directive with Secretarial Order 3398 on April 16, 2021. Read more »
After Biden officials prohibited a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore, which the Trump administration allowed it for the first time in a decade, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) sued. Read more »
The White House rescinded Trump-era guidance that agencies do not have to take a project’s long-term climate impacts into account. Read more »
President Biden revoked Donald Trump’s instruction to agencies that they expedite infrastructure projects during the pandemic. Read more »
President Biden partly revoked Trump’s Executive Order 13834, which instructed agencies to invoke their emergency powers to speed up infrastructure projects. Read more »
Revoked Obama-era standards requiring that federal projects consider sea-level rise and other climate impacts. Read more »
President Biden restored a 2013 executive order on preparing for climate change impacts by issuing Executive Order 13990. Read more »
President Biden restored federal flood standards Trump revoked in 2017. Read more »
President Biden rescinded Donald Trump’s reversal of an Obama executive order promoting climate resilience in the northern Bering Sea. Read more »
The Biden administration is working to stiffen federal flood risk standards for public housing after Trump officials withdrew an Obama-era proposal. Read more »
Biden officials suspended a proposal that would narrow the Transportation Department’s environmental reviews of major projects until September 14, 2023. Read more »
Citing the pandemic, instructed agencies to waive regulations to bolster the economy. Read more »
Opened up 5,400 acres surrounding Utah’s Factory Butte to off-road vehicles. Read more »
Revoked directive to minimize impacts on wildlife and land when approving development projects. Read more »
The Trump administration reversed a Obama-era policy to protect Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and allowed a land swap with the state so that a road could be built across it. Environmentalists sued and won in district court, but federal officials appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On March 8, 2021 the Biden Justice Department filed a brief defending the process by which the previous administration made this decision. Read more »
Withdrew 2016 order to consider climate change in the management of national parks. Read more »
A federal judge vacated a Trump-era permit greenlighting a project to allow a private company to extract water from beneath the Mojave Desert and transport it through a pipeline to the Colorado River Aqueduct. Read more »
The Biden administration finalized a set of changes to this Trump-era rule, to ensure agencies conducted a climate analysis of major federal actions and allow for greater community impact. Read more »
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for doing an inadequate environment review of a project to expand the San Juan Bay shipping channel. The suit argues that dredging the bay to allow for liquified natural gas tanker traffic will harm the area’s corals and wildlife. Read more »
The Trump administration granted a 50-year right-of-way for a 210-mile private mining road over an Alaskan roadless area that includes Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. On Jan. 21, 2022, the Biden administration asked for a 30-day extension in a lawsuit brought by environmental and Alaska Native groups. Read more »
Biden officials suspended a proposal to speed up environmental review process for U.S. Forest Service projects until Sept. 14, 2023. Read more »
Changed policy to allow coastal replenishment projects to use sand from protected ecosystems. Read more »
Streamlined Army Corps of Engineers permitting for pipelines and other projects. Read more »
Allows construction of a four-lane highway in a protected area home to threatened desert tortoises. The plaintiffs amended their lawsuit in July to target the Biden administration, which has not acted to revoke the right-of-way granted to the Utah Department of Transportation. Read more »
Exempted exports of natural gas from environmental reviews. Read more »
Nullified the Bureau of Land Management’s updated planning rule. Read more »
New 12
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration finalized new requirements to install remote or automatic shut-off valves on all new or replaced onshore pipelines six inches in diameter or greater. Biden officials said this would curb greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental damage in the wake of accidents. Read more »
The federal government will require contractors to use more climate-friendly concrete and asphalt in major projects going forward, a move expected to impact billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. Read more »
Biden officials took steps to speed transmission on the electricity grid, including issuing a new Transportation Department guidance that allows the use of existing highway rights of way for siting transmission lines and new Energy Department funding and loan guarantees for renewable energy transmission projects and ones owned by tribes and Alaska Native Corporations. Read more »
President Biden established a new cadre of workers to help restore landscapes and help communities adapt to climate change. Read more »
President Biden vowed to double offshore wind production by 2030. Read more »
Biden officials announced plans to create new standards to replace millions of underground lead water service lines, while providing $15 billion to help finance the effort. Read more »
FEMA issued a request for information on how to guide potential updates to the National Flood Insurance Program’s flood plain management standards, which have not been changed substantially since 1976. It is also seeking input on better protecting the habitats and populations of threatened and endangered species in the face of these risks. The comment period ended on Dec. 31, 2021. Read more »
Interior issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that would protect eagle populations while permitting complex projects such as wind energy facilities.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defended the Trump administration’s environmental analysis of Enbridge’s Line 3, which runs through Minnesota and has sparked protests from tribal and climate activists. The pipeline transports oil from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wis., a distance of roughly 1,000 miles. The pipeline started operating on Oct. 1, 2021.
Biden officials from the Interior and Defense departments reached an agreement with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to identify two areas for potential offshore wind development in the Pacific Ocean. If fully developed, they could produce up to 4.6 gigawatts of power, enough to power 1.6 million homes. Read more »
President Biden proposed investing $174 billion in electric vehicle charging stations, supply chains and raw materials. Read more »
The Biden administration launched an initiative to expand offshore wind production to 30 gigawatts by 2030 by streamlining permitting, offering low-interest loans and funding research. On Oct. 13, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would hold up to seven lease sales by 2025, in the Gulf of Maine, New York Bight, Central Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore the Carolinas, California and Oregon. Read more »
Easy to overturn 22
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
The Biden administration issued a Solicitor’s Opinion, 37073, which said that the rights to minerals lying under the section of the Missouri River flowing through North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation belongs to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. The DOI solicitor serving under Barack Obama had made a similar determination in 2017, which was reversed under Donald Trump. In 2020, then-DOI Solicitor Dan Jorjani awarded the rights to North Dakota instead. Read more »
Biden officials restored a Clean Water Act veto of a project that will drain and damage Mississippi wetlands. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule that would have allowed large property owners the ability to veto a proposal to add a site to the National Register of Historic Places. Read more »
Ruled it was legal to take sand from a protected area to replenish a beach elsewhere. Read more »
The Biden administration withdrew approval granted under the Trump administration allowing the use of radioactive phosphogypsum in government road construction projects. Read more »
Biden officials rescinded a Trump administration proposal changing the way the EPA weighs costs and benefits of environmental regulation. Read more »
Trump officials directed Interior Department to streamline its environmental review documents in Secretarial Order 3355, on Aug. 31, 2017. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland overturned this directive with Secretarial Order 3398 on April 16, 2021. Read more »
After Biden officials prohibited a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore, which the Trump administration allowed it for the first time in a decade, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) sued. Read more »
The White House rescinded Trump-era guidance that agencies do not have to take a project’s long-term climate impacts into account. Read more »
President Biden revoked Donald Trump’s instruction to agencies that they expedite infrastructure projects during the pandemic. Read more »
President Biden partly revoked Trump’s Executive Order 13834, which instructed agencies to invoke their emergency powers to speed up infrastructure projects. Read more »
Revoked Obama-era standards requiring that federal projects consider sea-level rise and other climate impacts. Read more »
President Biden restored a 2013 executive order on preparing for climate change impacts by issuing Executive Order 13990. Read more »
President Biden restored federal flood standards Trump revoked in 2017. Read more »
President Biden rescinded Donald Trump’s reversal of an Obama executive order promoting climate resilience in the northern Bering Sea. Read more »
The Biden administration is working to stiffen federal flood risk standards for public housing after Trump officials withdrew an Obama-era proposal. Read more »
Biden officials suspended a proposal that would narrow the Transportation Department’s environmental reviews of major projects until September 14, 2023. Read more »
Citing the pandemic, instructed agencies to waive regulations to bolster the economy. Read more »
Opened up 5,400 acres surrounding Utah’s Factory Butte to off-road vehicles. Read more »
Revoked directive to minimize impacts on wildlife and land when approving development projects. Read more »
The Trump administration reversed a Obama-era policy to protect Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and allowed a land swap with the state so that a road could be built across it. Environmentalists sued and won in district court, but federal officials appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On March 8, 2021 the Biden Justice Department filed a brief defending the process by which the previous administration made this decision. Read more »
Withdrew 2016 order to consider climate change in the management of national parks. Read more »
Medium 6
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
A federal judge vacated a Trump-era permit greenlighting a project to allow a private company to extract water from beneath the Mojave Desert and transport it through a pipeline to the Colorado River Aqueduct. Read more »
The Biden administration finalized a set of changes to this Trump-era rule, to ensure agencies conducted a climate analysis of major federal actions and allow for greater community impact. Read more »
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for doing an inadequate environment review of a project to expand the San Juan Bay shipping channel. The suit argues that dredging the bay to allow for liquified natural gas tanker traffic will harm the area’s corals and wildlife. Read more »
The Trump administration granted a 50-year right-of-way for a 210-mile private mining road over an Alaskan roadless area that includes Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. On Jan. 21, 2022, the Biden administration asked for a 30-day extension in a lawsuit brought by environmental and Alaska Native groups. Read more »
Biden officials suspended a proposal to speed up environmental review process for U.S. Forest Service projects until Sept. 14, 2023. Read more »
Changed policy to allow coastal replenishment projects to use sand from protected ecosystems. Read more »
Difficult 4
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
Streamlined Army Corps of Engineers permitting for pipelines and other projects. Read more »
Allows construction of a four-lane highway in a protected area home to threatened desert tortoises. The plaintiffs amended their lawsuit in July to target the Biden administration, which has not acted to revoke the right-of-way granted to the Utah Department of Transportation. Read more »
Exempted exports of natural gas from environmental reviews. Read more »
Nullified the Bureau of Land Management’s updated planning rule. Read more »
Accountability
Biden has said he will change the way the federal government works, making environmental justice a top priority. He will also restore the role of science in decision-making across the entire federal government. That includes taking aim at one of the EPA’s final acts under Trump: limiting the scientific data that can be used in the crafting of public health protections.
New 6
Easy to overturn 2
Medium 1
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
The Justice Department established an Office of Environmental Justice to target pollution in marginalized communities, and launched an effort along with the Environmental Protection Agency to address historic racial inequities. Read more »
President Biden ordered a report within 180 days on how climate change will spur migration, including climate refugees’ security impacts and foreign aid plans. Read more »
President Biden mandated that 40 percent of all federal sustainability investments go to disadvantaged communities. Read more »
President Biden established a new White House interagency council, as well as new offices in the Justice and Health and Human Services Departments. Read more »
The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a draft strategy for accounting for the value of natural capital. Read more »
The SEC voted on proposals aimed at providing more transparency to investors in funds that centered on environmental, social and corporate-governance, or ESG, factors. The agency said it plans to require funds and advisers to provide more disclosure about environmentally-focused investments, as well as generally require them to “disclose greenhouse gas emissions” associated with those portfolios. Read more »
Biden officials published an interim final rule to allow funding of environmental and community projects through legal settlements and lawsuits Read more »
Biden officials overturned a policy limiting the scientific studies the Interior Department uses to craft rules. Read more »
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule that formalized the decision by a Montana federal judge vacating a Trump-era rule restricting EPA’s use of scientific studies in crafting public health rules. Read more »
New 6
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
The Justice Department established an Office of Environmental Justice to target pollution in marginalized communities, and launched an effort along with the Environmental Protection Agency to address historic racial inequities. Read more »
President Biden ordered a report within 180 days on how climate change will spur migration, including climate refugees’ security impacts and foreign aid plans. Read more »
President Biden mandated that 40 percent of all federal sustainability investments go to disadvantaged communities. Read more »
President Biden established a new White House interagency council, as well as new offices in the Justice and Health and Human Services Departments. Read more »
The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a draft strategy for accounting for the value of natural capital. Read more »
The SEC voted on proposals aimed at providing more transparency to investors in funds that centered on environmental, social and corporate-governance, or ESG, factors. The agency said it plans to require funds and advisers to provide more disclosure about environmentally-focused investments, as well as generally require them to “disclose greenhouse gas emissions” associated with those portfolios. Read more »
Easy to overturn 2
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Biden officials published an interim final rule to allow funding of environmental and community projects through legal settlements and lawsuits Read more »
Biden officials overturned a policy limiting the scientific studies the Interior Department uses to craft rules. Read more »
Medium 1
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule that formalized the decision by a Montana federal judge vacating a Trump-era rule restricting EPA’s use of scientific studies in crafting public health rules. Read more »
Water pollution
Trump eased restrictions on how companies store coal ash, weakened rules on dumping toxic waste from power plants into waterways and altered which wetlands and streams require federal oversight. Biden has said he will crack down on legacy pollution, particularly in vulnerable communities, and will prioritize upgrading the nation’s crumbling drinking-water infrastructure.
New 2
Easy to overturn 2
Medium 7
Difficult 5
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
EPA issued new drinking water health advisories for several certain types of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS -- a ubiquitous class of compounds that poses risks to dozens of communities across the country. Read more »
The Biden administration plans to distribute more than $1 billion to clean and restore environmentally degraded sites around the Great Lakes, a major source of drinking water. The funding comes from an infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021. Read more »
The EPA on Sept. 15, 2021 rescinded a guidance that created a loophole in the discharge of water pollution, despite a Supreme Court ruling in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund. It is now exploring next steps in light of the Supreme Court decision. Read more »
Biden officials extended the notice of data availability for a rule that proposed limiting the scope of an Obama-era coal ash rule, notified some operators about their need to comply with federal cleanup requirements, and proposed denying four requests to delay closing unlined coal ash ponds. Read more »
Biden officials withdrew a Trump-era guidance that delayed electronic reporting requirements for water pollution discharges by five years. Read more »
The Biden administration dropped the appeal of a district court decision that the Environmental Protection Agency improperly removed Clean Water Act protections from the San Francisco South Bay salt ponds. The Trump administration’s action made it easier for Cargill to sell off the wetlands area. Read more »
EPA is reviewing a Trump-era rule that weakened what would have been tougher cleanup requirements for the power, oil and gas, and chemical manufacturing industries. Read more »
Allowed some coal ash impoundments to keep operating. Read more »
Trump officials proposed a rule that would let states set any criminal negligence standard for the Clean Water Act. Read more »
Reversed the finding that perchlorate, a toxic chemical, must be regulated nationwide. Read more »
Withdrew a proposed rule requiring groundwater protections in uranium mine operations. Read more »
Biden officials proposed a rule restoring the pre-2015 definition for what streams, wetlands and other waterways are federally protected, to replace a narrower Trump-era rule. Read more »
EPA announced it would develop stricter limits on dumping toxic waste from power plants into waterways. But in the meantime, it would leave a Trump-era rule finalized in 2020 in place. Read more »
EPA announced stricter rules on coal combustion residuals and increased enforcement on some coal ash ponds leaking toxic waste. Read more »
The Biden Administration Protection Agency is seeking to return authority to states and tribes to oppose gas pipelines, coal terminals and other projects that pose a threat to lakes, rivers and streams — reversing a major Trump administration rule. Read more »
Scrapped an Obama rule requiring mining firms to reduce harm to streams. Read more »
New 2
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
EPA issued new drinking water health advisories for several certain types of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS -- a ubiquitous class of compounds that poses risks to dozens of communities across the country. Read more »
The Biden administration plans to distribute more than $1 billion to clean and restore environmentally degraded sites around the Great Lakes, a major source of drinking water. The funding comes from an infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021. Read more »
Easy to overturn 2
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
The EPA on Sept. 15, 2021 rescinded a guidance that created a loophole in the discharge of water pollution, despite a Supreme Court ruling in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund. It is now exploring next steps in light of the Supreme Court decision. Read more »
Biden officials extended the notice of data availability for a rule that proposed limiting the scope of an Obama-era coal ash rule, notified some operators about their need to comply with federal cleanup requirements, and proposed denying four requests to delay closing unlined coal ash ponds. Read more »
Medium 7
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Biden officials withdrew a Trump-era guidance that delayed electronic reporting requirements for water pollution discharges by five years. Read more »
The Biden administration dropped the appeal of a district court decision that the Environmental Protection Agency improperly removed Clean Water Act protections from the San Francisco South Bay salt ponds. The Trump administration’s action made it easier for Cargill to sell off the wetlands area. Read more »
EPA is reviewing a Trump-era rule that weakened what would have been tougher cleanup requirements for the power, oil and gas, and chemical manufacturing industries. Read more »
Allowed some coal ash impoundments to keep operating. Read more »
Trump officials proposed a rule that would let states set any criminal negligence standard for the Clean Water Act. Read more »
Reversed the finding that perchlorate, a toxic chemical, must be regulated nationwide. Read more »
Withdrew a proposed rule requiring groundwater protections in uranium mine operations. Read more »
Difficult 5
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
Biden officials proposed a rule restoring the pre-2015 definition for what streams, wetlands and other waterways are federally protected, to replace a narrower Trump-era rule. Read more »
EPA announced it would develop stricter limits on dumping toxic waste from power plants into waterways. But in the meantime, it would leave a Trump-era rule finalized in 2020 in place. Read more »
EPA announced stricter rules on coal combustion residuals and increased enforcement on some coal ash ponds leaking toxic waste. Read more »
The Biden Administration Protection Agency is seeking to return authority to states and tribes to oppose gas pipelines, coal terminals and other projects that pose a threat to lakes, rivers and streams — reversing a major Trump administration rule. Read more »
Scrapped an Obama rule requiring mining firms to reduce harm to streams. Read more »
Wildlife
One of the hallmarks of former interior secretary David Bernhardt’s legacy has been the narrowing of safeguards for endangered wildlife. The northern spotted owl, whose forest habitat is disappearing; the Pacific walrus, which faces shrinking sea ice; and the Bryde’s whale, threatened by oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, are likely to receive enhanced protections under Biden.
New 12
Easy to overturn 10
Medium 16
Difficult 6
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The U.S. Trade Representative helped broker an agreement under the World Trade Organization barring government subsidies to vessels that engage in illegal fishing, or in fisheries that are overexploited or take place on the high seas.
The National Marine Fisheries Service finalized a rule restricting lobster fishing with buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine between October and May to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. A group of lobstermen sued and won an injunction, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the seasonal closure. Read more »
The Biden administration designated the Canoe Creek clubshell, a freshwater mussel species found in north-central Alabama, as endangered. It also protected 36 river miles of the mussel’s critical habitat. Read more »
President Biden signed a memorandum that pledged the U.S., U.K. and Canada will take steps to monitor fisheries more closely and work to “hold bad actors accountable.” The effort includes a 21-agency working group that will devise a five-year plan to curb illegal fishing.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalzed a rule that allows oil and gas companies to disturb polar bears and walruses in the Beaufort Sea as well as the Western Arctic through their drilling activities over the next five years. Read more »
President Biden set a goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Read more »
New restrictions aim to reduce boat collisions with right whales, which are a leading cause of the species’ decline. Read more »
The Biden administration wants to reclassify the northern long-eared bat from “threatened” to “endangered.” The species has been devastated by a deadly disease known as white-nose syndrome. Read more »
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the Sacremento Mountains checkerspot butterfly, which is only found in the higher-elevation mountains around the village of Cloudcroft in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest. The Center for Biological Diversity had filed three legal petitions over the course of two decades in an effort to get the butterfly listed. Read more »
The Biden administration intends to list emperor penguins as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that the flightless bird species from Antarctica faces a myriad of risks posed by climate change. The comment period on the proposal ended in October 2021. Read more »
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the lesser prairie chicken in the southern portion of its range, which includes part of New Mexico and Texas. The comment period has ended. Read more »
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed protecting 910 acres of critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat, a rare Nevada wildflower that threatened by a proposed lithium mine, Thacker Pass. The Center for Biological Diversity successfully sued the agency, and as part of a May 17, 2021 legal settlement the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing it as an endangered species listed. Read more »
The Biden administration reversed Trump’s move to shrink the spotted owl’s critical habitat by 3.4 million acres, instead reducing it by 204,294 acres. Read more »
Interior officials informed the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation it failed to survey maternal polar bear dens as required for a seismic testing permit in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Read more »
President Biden reimposed all commericial fishing limits within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Read more »
The Interior Department finalized a rule revoking a Trump-era legal interpretation that killing scores birds by accident is not subject to prosecution. The department will also take comment on how to improve the act’s implementation going forward. Read more »
Biden officials rescinded an order that eliminated the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership, which funds parks and greenspace projects in urban areas, and underserved communities. Read more »
Biden officials reopened the comment period on a proposal allowing the trapping and baiting of brown bears in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. On April 19, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the prohibition on brown bear baiting in the refuge. Read more »
The Biden administration is defending the Trump administration’s determination that designating habitat for the rusty patched bumble bee would be “not prudent,” despite the fact that it’s listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Biden administration later issued a recovery plan that would take steps to recover the species. Read more »
Withdrew a prohibition on using neonicotinoid pesticides and GMOs in national wildlife refuges. Read more »
Made it legal to destroy Canada geese nests year-round. Read more »
Lifted ban to allow for some elephant and lion trophy imports. Read more »
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service required, starting Aug. 1, 2021, that all shrimp trawlers 40 feet or greater in length use turtle excluder devices in their nets. The state of Louisiana challenged the policy in federal court, and a judge suspended the new requirement in in Louisiana inshore waters until Feb. 1, 2022. Read more »
Biden officials modified this Trump-era rule, which would have allowed oil and gas operators to harm marine mammals while during surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more »
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration illegally denied Endangered Species Act protections to the bi-state sage grouse, which straddles the Nevada-California state line, and ordered the Biden administration to make a final determination. Read more »
The Biden administration is considering whether to restore Endangered Species Act protections to gray wolves in the Lower 48. On Feb. 10, 2022, a federal judge reimposed these safeguards in many states but did not apply them to populations in the northern Rockies. Read more »
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sent this rule back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the Trump administration denied Endangered Species Act protections to the Pacific walrus, which is threatened by climate change. On June 3, 2021, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the agency failed to justify this decision and sent it back, demanding a proper justification. Read more »
In July 2018, the Trump administration expanded grazing in the Centennial Mountains, on the Idaho-Montana border. On April 16, 2021 a federal judge in the U.S. District Count for the District of Idaho ruled that the federal government failed to do an adequate analysis of the environmental impact of the move on native grizzly bears, wolves, bighorn sheep, and sage grouse. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed revoking a rule that prioritized industrial and other uses when making critical habitat designations. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management published a notice saying it would reconsider the Trump administration’s management plans to withdraw sage grouse protections spanning 10 million acres to allow drilling. Read more »
Relaxed environmental protections for salmon and smelt in California’s Central Valley. Read more »
The Trump administration scaled back consultations under the Endangered Species Act. A federal court later vacated that action. Read more »
Reversed a 25-year policy of barring the logging of trees with a diameter of 21 inches or more in national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington. Read more »
Vetoed bipartisan bill phasing out mile-long driftnets that entangle marine mammals and sharks. Read more »
Scuttled a recovery site for the endangered black-footed ferret. Read more »
The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its move during the Trump administration to reclassify American burying beetle from endangered to threatened, despite ongoing threats. Read more »
Adopted rules with fewer safeguards for Atlantic bluefin tuna. Read more »
Overturned a ban on the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands. Read more »
The Biden administration revoked a rule that requires consideration of financial impacts in designating critical habitats under the Endangered Species Act. The comment period has ended. Read more »
President Biden rescinded a Trump-era rule that narrowed the definition of what constitutes critical habitat for imperiled species. Read more »
Reversed Obama-era ban on controversial hunting practices on some lands in Alaska. Read more »
In July 2022, a federal district court vacated a Trump-era rule that limited how the government identifies habitat as critical for an imperiled species. Read more »
Rolled back inter-agency Endangered Species Act consultations on pesticides. Read more »
Overturned a ban on the hunting of predators in Alaskan wildlife refuges. Read more »
New 12
Policy put in place or proposed by the Biden administration
The U.S. Trade Representative helped broker an agreement under the World Trade Organization barring government subsidies to vessels that engage in illegal fishing, or in fisheries that are overexploited or take place on the high seas.
The National Marine Fisheries Service finalized a rule restricting lobster fishing with buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine between October and May to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. A group of lobstermen sued and won an injunction, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the seasonal closure. Read more »
The Biden administration designated the Canoe Creek clubshell, a freshwater mussel species found in north-central Alabama, as endangered. It also protected 36 river miles of the mussel’s critical habitat. Read more »
President Biden signed a memorandum that pledged the U.S., U.K. and Canada will take steps to monitor fisheries more closely and work to “hold bad actors accountable.” The effort includes a 21-agency working group that will devise a five-year plan to curb illegal fishing.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalzed a rule that allows oil and gas companies to disturb polar bears and walruses in the Beaufort Sea as well as the Western Arctic through their drilling activities over the next five years. Read more »
President Biden set a goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Read more »
New restrictions aim to reduce boat collisions with right whales, which are a leading cause of the species’ decline. Read more »
The Biden administration wants to reclassify the northern long-eared bat from “threatened” to “endangered.” The species has been devastated by a deadly disease known as white-nose syndrome. Read more »
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the Sacremento Mountains checkerspot butterfly, which is only found in the higher-elevation mountains around the village of Cloudcroft in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest. The Center for Biological Diversity had filed three legal petitions over the course of two decades in an effort to get the butterfly listed. Read more »
The Biden administration intends to list emperor penguins as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that the flightless bird species from Antarctica faces a myriad of risks posed by climate change. The comment period on the proposal ended in October 2021. Read more »
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the lesser prairie chicken in the southern portion of its range, which includes part of New Mexico and Texas. The comment period has ended. Read more »
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed protecting 910 acres of critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat, a rare Nevada wildflower that threatened by a proposed lithium mine, Thacker Pass. The Center for Biological Diversity successfully sued the agency, and as part of a May 17, 2021 legal settlement the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing it as an endangered species listed. Read more »
Easy to overturn 10
Can be reversed by a simple act, such as signing an executive order or new directive
The Biden administration reversed Trump’s move to shrink the spotted owl’s critical habitat by 3.4 million acres, instead reducing it by 204,294 acres. Read more »
Interior officials informed the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation it failed to survey maternal polar bear dens as required for a seismic testing permit in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Read more »
President Biden reimposed all commericial fishing limits within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Read more »
The Interior Department finalized a rule revoking a Trump-era legal interpretation that killing scores birds by accident is not subject to prosecution. The department will also take comment on how to improve the act’s implementation going forward. Read more »
Biden officials rescinded an order that eliminated the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership, which funds parks and greenspace projects in urban areas, and underserved communities. Read more »
Biden officials reopened the comment period on a proposal allowing the trapping and baiting of brown bears in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. On April 19, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the prohibition on brown bear baiting in the refuge. Read more »
The Biden administration is defending the Trump administration’s determination that designating habitat for the rusty patched bumble bee would be “not prudent,” despite the fact that it’s listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Biden administration later issued a recovery plan that would take steps to recover the species. Read more »
Withdrew a prohibition on using neonicotinoid pesticides and GMOs in national wildlife refuges. Read more »
Made it legal to destroy Canada geese nests year-round. Read more »
Lifted ban to allow for some elephant and lion trophy imports. Read more »
Medium 16
Can be reversed only through more extensive action, such as rewriting a regulation or court ruling
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service required, starting Aug. 1, 2021, that all shrimp trawlers 40 feet or greater in length use turtle excluder devices in their nets. The state of Louisiana challenged the policy in federal court, and a judge suspended the new requirement in in Louisiana inshore waters until Feb. 1, 2022. Read more »
Biden officials modified this Trump-era rule, which would have allowed oil and gas operators to harm marine mammals while during surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more »
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration illegally denied Endangered Species Act protections to the bi-state sage grouse, which straddles the Nevada-California state line, and ordered the Biden administration to make a final determination. Read more »
The Biden administration is considering whether to restore Endangered Species Act protections to gray wolves in the Lower 48. On Feb. 10, 2022, a federal judge reimposed these safeguards in many states but did not apply them to populations in the northern Rockies. Read more »
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sent this rule back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the Trump administration denied Endangered Species Act protections to the Pacific walrus, which is threatened by climate change. On June 3, 2021, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the agency failed to justify this decision and sent it back, demanding a proper justification. Read more »
In July 2018, the Trump administration expanded grazing in the Centennial Mountains, on the Idaho-Montana border. On April 16, 2021 a federal judge in the U.S. District Count for the District of Idaho ruled that the federal government failed to do an adequate analysis of the environmental impact of the move on native grizzly bears, wolves, bighorn sheep, and sage grouse. Read more »
The Biden administration proposed revoking a rule that prioritized industrial and other uses when making critical habitat designations. Read more »
The Bureau of Land Management published a notice saying it would reconsider the Trump administration’s management plans to withdraw sage grouse protections spanning 10 million acres to allow drilling. Read more »
Relaxed environmental protections for salmon and smelt in California’s Central Valley. Read more »
The Trump administration scaled back consultations under the Endangered Species Act. A federal court later vacated that action. Read more »
Reversed a 25-year policy of barring the logging of trees with a diameter of 21 inches or more in national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington. Read more »
Vetoed bipartisan bill phasing out mile-long driftnets that entangle marine mammals and sharks. Read more »
Scuttled a recovery site for the endangered black-footed ferret. Read more »
The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its move during the Trump administration to reclassify American burying beetle from endangered to threatened, despite ongoing threats. Read more »
Adopted rules with fewer safeguards for Atlantic bluefin tuna. Read more »
Overturned a ban on the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands. Read more »
Difficult 6
Can only be reversed through a lengthy regulatory process, act of Congress or court ruling
The Biden administration revoked a rule that requires consideration of financial impacts in designating critical habitats under the Endangered Species Act. The comment period has ended. Read more »
President Biden rescinded a Trump-era rule that narrowed the definition of what constitutes critical habitat for imperiled species. Read more »
Reversed Obama-era ban on controversial hunting practices on some lands in Alaska. Read more »
In July 2022, a federal district court vacated a Trump-era rule that limited how the government identifies habitat as critical for an imperiled species. Read more »
Rolled back inter-agency Endangered Species Act consultations on pesticides. Read more »
Overturned a ban on the hunting of predators in Alaskan wildlife refuges. Read more »