The rollback of environment justice: Executive orders, rulemaking, and the administrative process under the trump administration

Most substantive policy issue areas, particularly environmental policies, have been legitimized through the legislative process since the 1970s with the enactment of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. However, with a divided Congress, amendments to these two landmark pieces of legislation have become increasingly difficult to compromise and negotiate solutions to the most salient environmental problems in today's society, namely, climate change. The primary impacts of climate change are numerous: however, the changing weather patterns and factors affecting environmental health are at the highest risk. In the policy issue of environmental justice, Presidents Clinton and Obama used executive orders in an attempt to remedy some of the latent problems for minority and low-income populations, most notably, the regulation of carbon dioxide and methane. The coal industry lobbied candidate Trump who promised to rollback the regulations that affected that industry. This research investigates the executive orders issued in the Trump administration, presents a discussion of administrative rulemaking and federalism, and assesses the status of the executive orders to date.