EPA and Environmental Enforcement Priorities Likely to Shift in Second Trump Administration

“We’re likely to see a return to a focus on traditional fossil fuels over renewables,” said Morrison, who was a lawyer at the EPA and Justice Department for more than two decades before joining Pillsbury. “That said, it’s difficult to ascertain what influence Elon Musk might have in the transition to electric vehicles. Maybe there’s some middle ground, but I think he’s going to have some influence on the speed at which they transition to electric vehicles, and perhaps other renewables.”

Morrison added that the contrast in approaches between administrations will be quite noticeable in the area of environmental justice.

“I just don’t think environmental justice will be part of the conversation as much,” he said. “Today, the EPA and [the U.S. Department of Justice] look at the environmental justice implications of the complaints they are prepared to bring and the cases they are prepared to settle. I don’t believe that same calculus will necessarily be there in a second Trump EPA, which is likely to distance itself from that emphasis.”

In the area of enforcement, Morrison said that during the first administration the EPA frequently offered states the right of first refusal in handling and prosecuting cases within their borders, regardless of whether the EPA developed the case.

“That shifts the federal enforcement resources away from most of the environmental regulatory programs, and limits them to regulatory programs that are primarily federal—like fuels and vehicle and engine programs, where there’s no equivalent state counterpart,” he said. “This also lessens the incentive for EPA to develop enforcement cases in the first instance because it's likely they will not be the one prosecuting it.”

“So, if we return to that right of first refusal, enforcement numbers could drop again,” he concluded.

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