Instead, the 1990 reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, a bipartisan effort signed into law by the first President George Bush, was the last time Congress established guidelines for any number of pollution regulations, leaving federal guidelines behind the times.
“That has created opportunities for presidents, especially when you have a shift in control of executive branch and a shift in parties, to make fairly substantial changes on the fly,” said Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan who has studied executive actions and environmental issues.
“It is hard to build an enduring or durable set of policies through executive action,” Rabe said. “But it is quite possible to reverse or delay actions taken by your immediate predecessor.”
