Environmental laws and regulations

FILE - In this July 27, 2018, file photo, the Dave Johnson coal-fired power plant is silhouetted against the morning sun in Glenrock, Wyo. The Trump administration on Friday targeted an Obama-era regulation credited with helping dramatically reduce toxic mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants, saying the benefits to human health and the environment may not be worth the cost of the regulation. The 2011 Obama administration rule, called the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, led to what electric utilities say was an $18 billion clean-up of mercury and other toxins from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2018, file photo, Defendant Stephen Busch, right, listens at Flint District Court in Flint, Mich. Michael Prysby and Busch, two Michigan environmental regulators implicated in the Flint water scandal, have pleaded no contest to misdemeanors in exchange for more serious charges being dropped. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP, File)/

President Donald Trump, followed by Vice President Mike Pence, arrives to speak at a signing ceremony for H.R. 2, the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on the White House complex, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - This Feb. 10, 2016, file photo shows a former iron ore processing plant near Hoyt Lakes, Minn., that would become part of a proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced its approval of the air and water quality permits for the project and a certification of the company's plan to mitigate the mine's impact on wetlands. The only remaining major permit is a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

The U.S. Capitol Building Dome is seen through a beveled window at the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. President Donald Trump this week appears likely to pass up his last, best chance to secure funding for the “beautiful” wall he’s long promised to construct along the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2018 file photo, plastic bottles and other plastics including a mop, lie washed up on the north bank of the River Thames in London. European Union officials agreed on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018, to ban some single-use plastics, such as disposable cutlery, plates and straws, in an effort to cut marine pollution. The measure will also affect plastic cotton buds, drink stirrers, balloon sticks, and single-use plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, an endangered female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound west of Seattle as seen from a federal research vessel that has been tracking the whales. Two conservation groups say the federal government is violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to consider how salmon fishing off the West Coast is affecting endangered killer whales. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)