The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—led first by disgraced former administrator Scott Pruitt and now by Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler—has promised to issue new rules and standards within the framework of “cooperative federalism.” The EPA describes this approach as “working collaboratively with states, local government, and tribes” to implement environmental laws “rather than dictating one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington.”
The Trump EPA’s latest proposal, however, demonstrates that this new brand of cooperative federalism comes with a huge caveat: Cooperative federalism is the goal unless a state or local government wants to go above and beyond federal standards to protect the local environment and public health.
The above excerpt was originally published in Fortune.
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