Dems To Tread Lightly With Tool To Nix Trump Energy Regs

Leader of the Public Policy & Regulation Group Rich Gold was quoted in a Law360 article about The Congressional Review Act (CRA), which gives President Joe Biden and Congress a powerful tool to quickly unwind Trump-era energy and environmental policies. However, it is likely that the Democratic majority will wield the law with great caution given how broadly it can constrain future regulation. While the relative speed in undoing a regulation via the CRA as opposed to the formal agency rulemaking process is tempting, the article notes that most of the rules targeted by the Biden Administration are already being challenged in court.

"The courts are universally remanding these rules, for the most part," said Mr. Gold. "That's going to leave the Biden Administration with the ability to re-promulgate them the way they want them." He notes that most Democrats and Democratic-leaning interest groups don't like the CRA anyway, due to its potential to limit future regulation. Mr. Gold recalled working on an ultimately doomed effort to use the CRA to repeal a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule during the Obama Administration and the resistance he encountered from the White House, including Biden's office as vice president. "The first sentence in every conversation was, 'Well, you know we oppose the CRA, right?'" he said. "That's just the Democratic position."

READ: Dems To Tread Lightly With Tool To Nix Trump Energy Regs