EPA Announces Major Deregulatory Action

On March 12, 2025, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the Agency will undertake 31 actions to advance President Trump’s Day One Executive Orders and Power the Great American Comeback.1  Covering a range of industry sectors from electric power plants to personal automobiles to construction projects, these deregulatory actions will help lower compliance costs and put the economy on a track toward prosperity.   

Major Actions That Lay A Foundation For Permit Reform 

While all of the matters for reconsideration and revision are significant, two of the announced actions are foundational to achieving permit reform.  And if permit reform can be achieved, energy abundance will follow.     

The first is the revision of the definition of “waters of the United States.”  Nearly every earth moving activity – from LNG pipeline projects to oil and gas drilling to home construction – is subject to an evaluation of whether any “waters of the United States” could be impacted by the activity.  If the answer is yes, then a Clean Water Act permit may be required. While this should be a straightforward determination, it is not.  

The uncertainty surrounding what waters fit within the definition of “waters of the United States” has presented itself as a result of multiple final regulations and litigation challenging those final regs.  Consequently, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Agencies that  have responsibility for certain matters under the Clean Water Act, have been implementing the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Agencies’ January 2023 Rule in 24 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories.2  In the other 26 states, the Agencies have been interpreting “waters of the United States” consistent with their pre-2015 regulatory regime and the Supreme Court decision in  Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency.3  As a result, an entity with operations in multiple jurisdictions faces different compliance standards for the same regulation.   

In 2015, EPA issued a Final Rule defining “Waters of the United States.”4 According to the National Mining Association, the rule “ ‘….unlawfully expanded the scope of federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction and, contrary to its intended purpose, added significant confusion to the question of which waters are federally regulated and which are protected by the states.’ ”  5 During the first Trump Administration, EPA and the Corps repealed the 2015 Rule and recodified the regulatory text that existed prior to that 2015 Rule.  In 2020, EPA and the Corps issued The Navigable Waters Protection Rule:  Definition of “Waters of the United States”6 

Subsequently, the Biden Administration’s EPA and Corps, on January 18, 2023, published a Revised Definition of “Waters of the United States”; 7 and following the Supreme Court decision in Sackett on May 25, 2023, EPA and the Corps published a Revised Definition of “Waters of the United States”, Conforming on September 8, 2023.8  

 Clarity to and consistent application of the definition of “waters of the United States,” in accord  with the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett, can alleviate uncertainty and advance the permitting process.    

A second major action that will help achieve permit reform is the Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, along with the regulations and actions that rely on that Finding. The Endangerment Finding has served as a basis for EPA to implement regulations on carbon dioxide emissions  – considered a greenhouse gas – from a variety of sources, including vehicles and electric power plants. Prior to this 2009 decision by EPA, in 2007, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, ruled that greenhouse gases “fit well within the Clean Air Act’s capacious definition of ‘air pollutant,’ ”9 and as such, EPA has authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate new motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases.  Regulations implemented after both the Supreme Court decision and the Endangerment Finding have resulted in stringent air emissions permit requirements, particularly for electric generating facilities.  Compliance with those permit terms has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in costs that have been passed on to the American consumer.  A Reconsideration of this Finding, that evaluates all components upon which it was based, can provide an opportunity to untangle the web that has been spun at EPA and focus on developing appropriate regulatory parameters consistent with the text of the Clean Air Act.       

Additional Matters That Will Be Addressed  

Administrator Zeldin’s announcement also indicated that enforcement resources will be redirected to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers.   

Additional items under reconsideration include the following:   

Unleashing American Energy 

• Reconsideration of regulations on power plants including: 

• Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0) 

• Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program  

• Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards (Effluent Limitations Guidelines – [ELGs]) for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources; 

• Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for coal power plants to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELGs) 

• Reconsideration of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that targeted coal-fired power plants 

• Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards (PM 2.5 NAAQS)  

• Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPS) for the energy [and manufacturing] sectors 

• Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of  affordable energy for Americans 

• Ending the “Good Neighbor Plan” that has been previously used to expand federal rules to states and sectors beyond the Program’s traditional focus and which has led to the rejection of multiple Clean Air Act (CAA) State Implementation Plans (SIPs) 

• Prioritizing the coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and updating coal ash regulations (the Coal Combustion Residuals [CCR] Rule) 

• Working with States and Tribes to resolve the backlog of State Implementation Plans (SIPs) and Tribal Implementation Plans (TIPs) that the Biden-Harris Administration failed to resolve 

Lowering the Cost of Living for American Families  

• Reconsideration of the light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation of the Biden-Harris Administration’s electric vehicle mandate 

• Reconsideration of the technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increase costs on an array of products from food at grocery stores to semiconductor manufacturing  

• Overhauling the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon” 

While it will take time for these announced actions to be developed, noticed, and finalized, it is clear that our nation has an Environmental Protection Agency that is working fulfill the mandate that the American people have demanded.  Americans for Prosperity applauds Administrator Zeldin for these bold actions that will have a significant impact on the energy sector and will help our nation unleash energy abundance. 

Footnotes:

1 “EPA Launches Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History”,  “Administrator Zeldin Announces 31 Historic Actions to Power the Great American Comeback”, March 12, 2025 https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history 

2 The EPA website indicates:  “As a result of ongoing litigation on the January 2023 Rule, the agencies are implementing the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ under the January 2023 Rule, as amended by the conforming rule, in 24 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories.  In the other 26 states, the agencies are interpreting ‘waters of the United States’ consistent with the pre-2015 regulatory regime and the Sackett decision until further notice.”   https://www.epa.gov/wotus/definition-waters-united-states-rule-status-and-litigation-update 

3 Id. 

4 Clean Water Rule:  Definition of “Waters of the United States”, 80 FR 37054, June 29, 2015 Federal Register  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/06/29/2015-13435/clean-water-rule-definition-of-waters-of-the-united-states

5 “NMA Welcomes the Repeal of the Flawed 2015 WOTUS Rule”, Statement of National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn following action from the Environmental Protection Agency repealing the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, September 12, 2019 https://nma.org/2019/09/12/nma-welcomes-the-repeal-of-the-flawed-2015-wotus-rule/

6 The Navigable Waters Protection Rule:  Definition of “Waters of the United States”, Final rule, 85 FR 22250, Federal Register, April 21, 2020 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/04/21/2020-02500/the-navigable-waters-protection-rule-definition-of-waters-of-the-united-states

7 Revised Definition of “Waters of the United States”, 88 FR 3004, Federal Register, January 18, 2023,  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/18/2022-28595/revised-definition-of-waters-of-the-united-states

8 Revised Definition of “Waters of the United States” ‘ Conforming, Final rule, 88 FR 61964, Federal Register, September 8, 2023 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/09/08/2023-18929/revised-definition-of-waters-of-the-united-states-conforming 

9 Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al., 549 U.S. 497, 500 (2007)