The Institute for Policy Integrity is tracking altered enforcement of environmental laws by federal and state agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In connection with the crisis, several agencies have issued waivers or announced plans to stop enforcing key environmental laws and regulations.
Separately, the Trump administration has continued to pursue several controversial policy priorities even in the face of the crisis, for example by weakening public health protections in its rollback of automobile emission standards, holding non-competitive auctions for oil & gas leases, and denying requests to extend public comment periods in regulatory proceedings. But this tracker focuses only on actions directly connected to the crisis rather than instances where the administration has continued to pursue its policy priorities while the nation addresses the public health crisis.