Environmental Health Regulation in the Trump Era: How President Trump’s Two-for-One Regulatory Plan Impacts Environmental Regulation

This Article explores the Trump regulatory reform agenda and its potential impact on environmental determinants of health. The Article begins with a discussion of the Department of Commerce’s (DOC or Commerce) initial fact-finding investigation to evaluate the impact of federal regulations on domestic manufacturing. The Article next presents an overview of the Trump administration’s regulatory reform formula as announced in E.O. 13771 and the interim guidance explaining E.O. 13771 and E.O. 13777 (the executive order announcing the Trump administration’s plans to enforce the regulatory reform plan announced in E.O. 13771). The Article then examines the federal agency initiatives undertaken in response to the Trump directives, including both fact-finding dockets and regulatory action published in the federal register applying the executive orders. This Article concludes with concerns about the practical effects of the new policy on the future of environmental determinants of health and recommends that the policy be reevaluated after a year to understand the unintended effects of this means of deregulation.