Literature review of current environmental law system under the Trump Administration

As a research intern at Miami Waterkeeper from May to December 2018, I was tasked with summarizing key developments in federal environmental law and policy and how those developments would impact Miami Waterkeeper. The purpose of this work was to provide an overview of the current trends in environmental law and to analyze which causes of action would be the most viable for Miami Waterkeeper under new, or proposed, changes to statutes. I conducted a literature review where I used several research databases such as ResearchGate and Google Scholar. I conducted a rigorous search by applying key words such as environment, law, policy, regulation and temporally limited my search from 2016-present to reflect the Trump Administration’s time in office. The literature I relied on for this analysis consists of analytical papers focusing on some of Trump Administration’s actions and Federal Register publications of proposed and final rules, news releases and media notes. In addition to my research work, I also facilitated events such as Bay Day, International Coastal Clean-Up, and other outreach events. I also attended a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) meeting with stakeholders at Port Everglades and participated in an issues-briefing with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) where we discussed current issues against several rapidly changing federal environmental laws. This report seeks to summarize some key changes in federal environmental laws and analyzes potential impacts of these changes to litigants like Miami Waterkeeper. The Trump Administration attempted, and succeeded in some cases, to roll back the Obama term regulations including the Clean Water Rule, Clean Power Plan, and etc. This summary assists Miami Waterkeeper in staying up to date on the fast-moving changes to environmental law and policy that may impact the physical environment and Miami Waterkeeper’s standing to sue. This report will better prepare Miami Waterkeeper for a litigation if legal action is necessary in order to protect our waterways