Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks Were Fast. It Could Get Messy in Court.<br />“By going back to the drawing board, even if the idea is to benefit economies<br />of states, it’s just injecting more delay and uncertainty into the picture.”<br />On other moves, Mr. Zinke may have bypassed requirements of the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act, which requires<br />that federal-agency decisions that could have an environmental impact on the nation’s air, water, or pristine wildlife habitats must include a scientific analysis detailing the effects.<br />“If the previous action by the Obama administration was made based on findings of fact,” he said, then reversing<br />it “will have to be justified by saying, ‘those facts are no longer true.’ And that will be difficult to do.”<br />Experts say that Mr. Trump’s efforts to roll back protections on national monuments could hit legal roadblocks as well.<br />WASHINGTON — As the head of the federal agency controlling billions of acres of public lands<br />and waters, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has spent the past year making bold policy proclamations to advance President Trump’s energy agenda: He would open coastal waters to drilling, shrink national monuments, lift Obama-era fossil fuel regulations and reduce wildlife protections.<br />Speaking to reporters last week, Mr. Zinke said, “We looked at everything,” adding: “There is no significant issue the Department of Interior<br />has found environmentally.” Asked for a copy of the findings, Mr. Zinke suggested making a Freedom of Information Act request.<br />Trump administration policymakers “have the legal right to open up the entire coast to drilling, if they<br />follow the process,” said David Hayes, the deputy Interior Secretary under the Obama administration.
