Trump administration freezes all pending regulations, including at least 30 from the EPA

The White House ordered the heads of executive departments and agencies to freeze progress on all regulatory rulemaking processes—those initiated but not yet finalized by the Obama administration. Any rules that have not yet been submitted to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) for publication will not be sent. Those already at the OFR but not yet published will be withdrawn, and the start dates of published rules that have not yet taken effect will be pushed back two months. Though President Obama’s staff sent a nearly identical memo in 2009, theirs allowed rules related to environmental protection to move forward. Among the environmental rules affected by Trump’s move is a set of energy-efficiency standards that would save consumers billions of dollars’ worth of wasted electricity, standards to improve pipeline safety, and the addition of bumblebees to the Endangered Species List. At least 30 EPA regulations are frozen, including the updated Renewable Fuel Standard; new risk-management program for refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities; and formaldehyde-emission standards for wood products. It is not yet certain whether the Trump administration will kill these rules altogether, but the president has expressed hostility toward federal regulations before and since being elected.