Washington, 23 January (Argus) — President Donald Trump’s administration moved to block pending regulations that have not yet taken effect, such as a pipeline leak reporting rule and tax guidelines for master limited partnerships.
A memo issued today freezes publication of last-minute regulations from President Barack Obama’s administration that have been completed but not yet published in the Federal Register. It also imposes a 60-day delay on published regulations that have not yet taken effect, a change that might apply to new refinery safety regulations issued last month.
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who signed the 21 January memo, said the regulatory freeze would apply until Trump appointees had time to review legal and policy questions around pending rules. Obama and other past presidents issued similar regulatory delays soon after taking office.
The move comes as Trump today reiterated a campaign pledge to ax federal regulations he says are harming businesses and economic growth. Trump said he would cut regulations “massively” and said he thought they could be reduced by 75pc or more. This could be achieved without lessening the protectiveness of existing rules, he said. He did not say how this would be accomplished.
“We are going to have regulations, and it will be just as strong and just as good and just as protective of the people as the regulations we have right now,” Trump told US manufacturing executives at a meeting today. “The problem with the regulation we have right now is you cannot do anything.”
The memo appears poised to halt publication of a recent regulation from the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration that would set a one-hour deadline for oil and gas pipelines to report leaks and accidents. It could also halt publication of Internal Revenue Service guidelines clarifying which energy projects qualify as master limited partnerships and a royalty change that applies to kerogen-holding oil shale on federal lands.
The memo also appears likely to delay an already published regulation requiring refineries and chemical facilities to evaluate the feasibility of switching to “inherently safer” processes. That rule is not scheduled to take effect until 14 March.
But the Priebus memo will not affect high-profile energy rules the Obama administration rushed to put in place before Trump took office on 20 January. That includes restrictions on natural gas flaring on federal lands and coal mining rules designed to protect streams, both of which took effect in the week before the change in administrations. Republican leaders in the US Congress say they plan to use a law called the Congressional Review Act to throw out the flaring and coal mining rules.
Past efforts to minimize regulatory burdens have often fallen short because of the procedural difficulty of repealing regulations and political resistant to undoing rules industry has already invested to comply with. Obama issued executive orders in 2011 and 2012 seeking to streamline or repeal regulations but few substantive changes occurred as a result.