Laws & Regulations

"Royal Dutch Shell Plc will push for the reversal of President Donald Trump’s rollback of methane emissions rules and the introduction of carbon pricing when Joe Biden moves into the White House next year.

“Some of the regulatory rollbacks that we’ve seen under the current administration haven’t actually benefited our industry,” Shell U.S. President Gretchen Watkins said Tuesday on a webcast hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership.

"The Interior Department yesterday submitted to Congress its lists of Land and Water Conservation Fund projects to be prioritized for fiscal 2021 — a week late and amid fierce backlash from members of both parties and environmental advocates."

"The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed yesterday to pause developers' use of a streamlined water permit for the Mountain Valley pipeline, dealing another setback for a multibillion-dollar project beset by years of delays and cost overruns."

"President-elect Joe Biden’s transition teams for the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department will be run by several agency alumni who served under President Barack Obama and helped craft regulations like the Clean Power Plan and tougher fuel economy standards for vehicles."

"The U.S. Federal Reserve for the first time called out climate change among risks enumerated in its biannual financial stability report, and warned about the potential for abrupt changes in asset values in response to a warming planet."

"President-elect Joe Biden's transition team is tapping a former Obama-era Bureau of Land Management director to help reset the bureau's priorities under the new administration."

"The Justice Department’s environment division is poised to ramp up pollution policing and sideline Trump-era policies when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January—joining agencies across the executive branch in making a sharp turn to the left."

"President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned on the most ambitious climate platform of any presidential candidate in history, promising to spend $2 trillion over four years to draw down planet-warming fossil fuel emissions and convert much of the nation to clean energy. The possibility that the Senate could remain under the control of Republicans, who have generally opposed climate legislation, puts a damper on some of his biggest-ticket plans."

"Now that President Trump has lost reelection, observers and advocates are bracing for agencies to finish a host of actions on energy and the environment."