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“The agency can’t just ignore the previous rule,” explains Richard Revesz, a law professor at New York University. “It has to make a sound argument for why its new approach is superior — and prove to the courts that it’s not just acting in an arbitrary or capricious manner.” Otherwise, the courts will knock down Pruitt’s attempts to rewrite the rule.

When EPA issues a regulation, say for mercury from power plants, it also counts as co-benefits the reductions in particulate matter that would result. Jack Lienke of New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity says EPA uses a model that reflects smaller health gains from reductions at lower concentrations. Its model is based on peer-reviewed studies and has been reviewed by the agency’s independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, he said.

Immediately after his inauguration, President Trump met with business leaders telling them he hopes to cut regulation. What does this mean for corporate growth and consumers? How do voters on the left and the right view these changes and is there common ground to be found? MPR chief economics commentator Chris Farrell spoke with Michael Mandel at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington and Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law.

“The order is extremely vague, and it could easily lead to agency gridlock and regulatory uncertainty,” said Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University’s School of Law.

Appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch has been a vigorous critic of the so-called “Chevron doctrine” that gives federal agencies latitude when interpreting ambiguous laws. “Chevron deference became really important in the later part of the Obama administration because Congress hadn’t acted on a number of environmental issues in a while,” said Denise Grab, a senior attorney with Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law.

According to Derek Sylvan, strategy director for the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University's School of Law, the executive order "creates a new, irrational way" of evaluating all past and present regulations. "Every regulation will be judged on its costs alone, ignoring the benefits it was designed to create," he says. "If we scrap a regulation that imposes $10 of costs on industry in exchange for $500 of avoided hospital visits, we haven't "saved" society $10; we've thrown away $490. But this order would ignore the $500 in benefits."

President Donald Trump signed an order Monday aimed at cutting regulations on businesses and bankers, saying that agencies should eliminate two regulations for every new one added. Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, said the wording of Trump’s regulations order is likely to cause “confusion and chaos.”

The centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s climate change policy is a 2015 E.P.A. rule curbing greenhouse gas emissions from electric utilities. Mr. Trump has vowed to eliminate the rule, but doing so could require years of court battles. “There are a number of ways this could play out as it goes through the courts, and it could take at least four to five years,” said Richard Revesz. “Ultimately, what happens to it will likely be determined by the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

America’s most progressive state is set to lead the new fight against federal power. Some potential suits are starting to take shape. California’s lieutenant-governor has said that the state could sue under the California Environmental Quality Act or its federal equivalent to quash Mr. Trump’s plans for a wall along the border with Mexico. Richard Revesz, an environmental-policy expert at New York University’s School of Law, says Democratic states could also sue to slow the repeal of the Clean Power Plan.

The federal coal program is a quintessential bad deal for Americans. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to end similar bad deals; his administration shouldn’t discard ongoing reform efforts that could add billions to the federal treasury and energy-producing states.