This August 2020 report from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law charts a course for executive action that, under a new presidential administration, would reverse the deregulatory agenda of the Trump Administration. For purposes of this analysis, the report assumes a Biden administration is in power and faces a divided Congress.
This report’s suggestions include, at the outset, executive actions for the President himself to take. The report then addresses steps that each affected agency can take. Examples of such actions include rejoining the Paris Agreement, reapplying protections to various categories of public lands, reinstating or revisiting greenhouse gas emission standards for various major sources, revising energy efficiency standards to comport with the law, reestablishing processes to assess and account for environmental and public health impacts resulting from federal decisions, and enhancing resilience and equity through planning and standards for decision-making. The report includes, as an appendix, a draft executive order that President Biden could issue on his first day in office to instantly revoke as many of President Trump’s deregulatory actions as legally possible, reset policies for the entire federal government, and promptly begin the critical work of setting the United States on a path toward addressing the climate crisis.