Environmental Federalism and the Trump Presidency: A Preliminary Assessment

President Trump has embarked on an ambitious and far-reaching attempt to reshape American environmental policy. In regard to climate change, water quality, and other areas, his administration's actions constitute an attempt to roll back existing environmental protections and to recalibrate American environmental federalism. These actions largely represent a continuation of the practice of presidential reliance on the tools of the administrative presidency that has shaped U.S. environmental policy over the past forty years, although the Trump Administration has employed these tools in an especially aggressive fashion. Because changing public policy through administrative means is a time-consuming process that invites legal challenge, the full implications of these efforts will not be known for several years.