Pruitt has proposed the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of Obama’s costly climate change initiative. He likewise is leading the effort to rescind Obama’s Waters of the United States rule, which imposed a new definition for the waters the federal government can regulate under the Clean Water Act. The broad definition, if enacted, would infringe on property rights and override the role of states in water stewardship.

In addition to initiating a variety of other regulatory repeals, Pruitt halted the EPA’s manipulation of judicial review with a directive to end the agency’s “sue and settle” scheme. For years, EPA regulators worked in concert with advocacy groups to engineer legal settlements resulting in more stringent regulation by precedent than it could have enacted following the formal rulemaking process. Similarly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended the Obama administration’s practice of funneling billions of dollars in settlement funds to left-wing allies.

Republican Ajit Pai, a career official of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by Trump as its first Indian American administrator, also slashed red tape. The commission reversed the 2015 “net neutrality” rule (formally titled the Open Internet Order), which subjected internet service providers to regulations crafted decades ago for telephony.

Slashing Red Tape

However, the process of regulation is so ingrained in the political system that it’s not always possible to shift into reverse.

The administration inherited 1,985 regulations in the rulemaking pipeline, 966 in the proposal stage and 1,019 in the final stage. The administration’s new Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions reflects the withdrawal of 635 previously listed rulemakings, another 244 regulations rendered inactive, and the delay of 700 rulemakings. The agenda also commits federal agencies to cutting future regulatory costs to the private sector by $9.8 billion.

Nonetheless, federal rulemaking slowed dramatically in 2017, with the Trump administration issuing two-thirds fewer regulations in its first year (1,209) than the administrations of both presidents Barack Obama (3,356) and George W. Bush (3,233). The number of “major” rules, those anticipated to cost the private sector $100 million or more annually, numbered just 32 in Trump’s first year, compared to 73 under Obama and 51 under Bush.

Executive Orders

The president has also issued a variety of executive orders (EOs) and presidential memoranda directing agency administrators to take specific regulatory actions. Signaling a major change in energy policy, for example, the president directed agency officials to expedite requests for approvals to construct and operate the Dakota Access Pipeline, and to invite TransCanada to resubmit its application for construction and operation of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Two other executive orders are intended to have a direct and substantial impact on the extent of future rulemaking.

EO 13771 directs agency officials to identify for repeal at least two existing regulations for every new regulation they promulgate and White House officials have even raised the goal to eliminating three regulations for each new one issued. The order also calls for a budgeting process to manage regulatory costs, and prohibits any increase in the total incremental cost of all regulations unless required by law or advised by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.