The Nine Lives of the Roadless Rule

摘要

Few areas of law are so regularly whip-sawed by presidential elections as environmental law. Almost like clockwork, the final weeks (if not days) of an outgoing administration are marked by efforts to enact so-called "midnight" environmental regulations, which are then greeted by no less aggressive efforts by the incoming administration to find a way to undo the predecessors handiwork. Whatever the political party coming in or out of the White House, the pattern is the same. Immediately after the inauguration, the new president issues an executive order to stop, if possible, midnight rules from becoming effective. The relevant client agency, supported by the Justice Department, next declines to defend the rule's legality in litigation. Finally, a stakeholder group supportive of the rule subsequendy steps in to defend the rule in the federal government's stead.