On March 12, 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency’s intention to reconsider 31 environmental regulations, describing the effort as the “single most impactful day of deregulation in EPA history.” While the scope of this initiative spans air, water, and climate regulations, the most consequential actions—legally and practically—center on a handful of cross-cutting programs and sector-specific rules.

Although the EPA’s announcement is styled as a deregulatory roadmap, none of the targeted rules are rescinded yet. Each proposed rollback will require full notice-and-comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and legal challenges are inevitable. This GT Alert summarizes seven of the most significant rulemakings to watch and highlights the legal and procedural headwinds the EPA is likely to face.

Continue reading the full GT Alert.

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Photo of Christopher Bell Christopher Bell

Chris Bell represents clients in civil and criminal enforcement and investigations, litigation, compliance counseling, emergency incident response, and legislative and regulatory advocacy (including appellate challenges to rulemakings) under all of the major environmental, health, safety and natural resource laws. His enforcement experience includes…

Chris Bell represents clients in civil and criminal enforcement and investigations, litigation, compliance counseling, emergency incident response, and legislative and regulatory advocacy (including appellate challenges to rulemakings) under all of the major environmental, health, safety and natural resource laws. His enforcement experience includes internal investigations, responding to grand jury investigations and agency information requests, and negotiating consent, probation, and debarment agreements. He is currently the EPA Independent Monitor overseeing the nation’s largest investor-owned energy company’s compliance with complex debarment and probation agreements arising from the resolution of a criminal enforcement case brought under the Clean Water Act.

Chris assists buyers, sellers, investors and financial institutions on the environmental aspects of transactions, including conducting due diligence, negotiating the environmental provisions of transactional documents, and identifying and executing insurance-based risk management opportunities. His transactional experience has included upstream, midstream and downstream energy projects, alternative energy projects, and transactions in the manufacturing, logistics, consumer products and chemicals sectors.

He helps clients evaluate and implement compliance and ethics programs (e.g., under the Sentencing Guidelines), and environmental, health and safety management systems (including based on ISO 14001). Chris advises clients on sustainable development, climate change, product and chemical stewardship and regulation, and value chain management. He recently served on an independent committee advising the senior management of a Fortune 50 company on its global sustainability strategy and reporting.

Photo of Eric Waeckerlin Eric Waeckerlin

Eric Waeckerlin is a trusted advisor to leading energy, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and industrial companies on their most complex and consequential environmental and natural resources matters. He counsels clients through high-stakes regulatory, permitting, enforcement, and policy challenges at the intersection of

Eric Waeckerlin is a trusted advisor to leading energy, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and industrial companies on their most complex and consequential environmental and natural resources matters. He counsels clients through high-stakes regulatory, permitting, enforcement, and policy challenges at the intersection of major project development, air quality, and climate strategy, with a practice designed to support executive decision-making and enterprise-level risk management.

Eric is nationally recognized for his deep skills navigating the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and its state analogues, and he routinely advises on permitting, compliance, and enforcement matters affecting large-scale conventional and low-carbon energy projects. His experience spans the full lifecycle of major projects—from early siting and permitting strategy through construction, operation, and defense of agency actions—allowing clients to move critical projects forward while managing regulatory, reputational, and financial risk. In addition to the CAA, Eric has substantial experience under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

As energy markets evolve, Eric has been at the forefront of advising clients on climate and decarbonization strategies. He counsels companies on domestic and international climate and methane policy, including carbon capture and other CO₂ management regimes, emissions reduction and offset strategies, and participation in carbon and greenhouse gas markets. His work helps clients integrate highly complex regulatory compliance with broader sustainability, investment, and corporate strategy objectives.

In high-stakes litigation and regulatory challenges, Eric has served as lead counsel for national oil and gas trade associations in challenges to federal regulations and has successfully defended oil and natural gas companies in numerous multimillion-dollar air quality enforcement actions brought by the EPA and state agencies. Clients value his ability to combine technical regulatory knowledge with strategic judgment, making him a go-to counselor for executives and management teams navigating the legal risks shaping the future of energy.