Trends for the environment/EPA:
Over the years EPA has continued to create regulations; now approaching 90% of the almost 30,000 pages of federal regulatory requirements. This is not expected to continue. How President Trump and his administration will affect regulations in place and in the pipeline is unclear at this time.
Trends for health and safety/OSHA:
OSHA is a smaller agency than EPA and focuses on enforcement. As with EPA, the challenges and opportunities for OSHA remain unknown. The first challenge for the regulated community is to understand what the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) rules and requirements will look like under the new president and his administration. While some easing of regulatory requirements is expected this will not happen over night. Neither the EPA nor OSHA is expected to disappear. In addition, it must be kept in mind that most environmental enforcement takes place at the state level and therefore, while regulations may be rescinded or the number coming forward reduced at the federal level; state regulations should not be impacted by what happens in Washington.
There is a good chance that the European approach of using management systems will have an increased presence in the states. The European system uses competition among companies to improve environmental performance; and, therefore, provides an opportunity to increase the bottom line. The International Standards Organization (ISO) environmental standard, titled ISO 14001, is but one example. It is perhaps the most widely used of the environmental management systems. ISO 14001 has recently been updated. With new computer EHS management programs an increase in electronic reporting is expected. The US Toxic Substances Control Act has recently been re-authorized and signed into law. It is likely that some regulations will be put it place.
For OSHA there may be emphases on ISO 18001, which is the International Standards Organization health and safety standard. Both ISO 14001 and ISO 18001 are a movement away from the command and control approach of both the EPA and OSHA to a more business focused model.