Trump Administration Rolls Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules Over Four Years, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That The Air And Water Were Subject To Federal Standards

WASHINGTON. The Trump administration concluded its first term on Wednesday having formally rolled back, revoked, or weakened more than 100 federal environmental regulations, resolving a long-standing concern that the air, water, and land of the United States were still being managed under rules.

According to a tracker maintained by The New York Times in partnership with Harvard Law School and other legal researchers, the administration completed the reversal of 98 environmental protections over four years and had an additional 14 rollbacks in progress when the term ended, a combined total that officials described as one of the central achievements of the presidency. Aides noted that the figure had been reached without resorting to any single dramatic gesture, but rather through the steady, businesslike repeal of one safeguard after another.

The dismantled rules spanned nearly every category of environmental oversight, including limits on carbon emissions from power plants, fuel economy standards for cars, protections for streams and wetlands, restrictions on the release of mercury and methane, safeguards for endangered species, and the environmental review process required before major federal projects. Administration officials characterized each individual rollback as the removal of an unnecessary burden, and the 100-plus rollbacks collectively as the removal of 100-plus unnecessary burdens.

"We have the cleanest air and the cleanest water we've ever had," said the President, who throughout his term pledged that the country would enjoy "crystal clean" air and water while simultaneously eliminating the federal mechanisms by which air and water cleanliness had previously been measured and enforced. A source within the administration confirmed that the milestone of 100 rollbacks had been cleared ahead of schedule, and added that the remaining 14 had been deliberately left in a state of near-completion as a courtesy to any future administration that shared the President's priorities.

Analysts who reviewed the tracker observed that the rollbacks were expected to produce significantly more air pollution and thousands of additional premature deaths over the coming decade, a projection contained in several of the administration's own regulatory impact analyses. Officials declined to dispute the figures, noting that the deaths in question would occur gradually, would be spread across many states, and would not be formally attributed to any single rule, all of which they presented as evidence that the deregulatory effort had been conducted in an orderly fashion.

At press time, the outgoing administration had filed the completed tracker in a drawer, confident that the next president would need at least as many years to put the rules back as it had taken to remove them.