, Columnist
The Truth About Trump and Deregulation
The administration says it is eliminating a lot of federal rules. It's not that simple.
Rules reducing smog are hard to rescind.
Photograph: Jamie Rector/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In what sounded like a major announcement, the Trump administration last week highlighted numbers showing it was making big strides in controlling regulations.
It is true that the pace of rulemaking has slowed dramatically. Thus far, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has approved just 41 regulations, meaning that we might see fewer than 100 in all of 2017. That would be less than one-fifth of the average under the most recent Republican president, George W. Bush.