The recent federal government shutdown has delayed the EPA's
rewrites of Obama-Era rules, such as carbon standards for existing
power plants, which may jeopardize the Trump administration's
ability to defend the rewrites in court before the 2020
presidential election. Andrew Wheeler, the agency's acting
chief told senators during his January 16th confirmation hearing
that the federal shutdown paused work on the Trump's
administrations initiatives to rewrite or rollback Obama-Era
climate, air, and water regulations. The EPA was in the process of
reviewing comments on several major proposals, including its power
plan rule and plans to weaken federal fuel economy limits for
passenger cars, and is going to be hard pressed to complete the
rulemaking process, and defend the rules in court prior to the 2020
election cycle. The EPA's original target for completion of the
rule changes was March 2019 which appears highly unlikely given the
33 day delay.
