The resignation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt raises new questions about the direction of environmental policy under President Trump. There's never been a more important time to read Inside EPA.
Sign up for 30 days of no-obligation access..
EPA's recent court losses in cases undoing implementation delays for two major Obama-era rules create additional legal complications for acting agency chief Andrew Wheeler's agenda, as he faces new pressures to implement regulations that were previously on hold unless the agency can find a rationale to further delay them.
EPA's proposal to strengthen its 2001 lead paint dust hazard standards is spurring conflicting reactions, with healthy housing groups, environmentalists and some states urging the agency to significantly tighten its standards for protective measures in some locations, though home builders say more data is necessary to ensure the proposal is viable.
EPA has dropped an early plan to consider risks of asbestos exposures to firefighters and other first responders due to its policy of excluding legacy uses from consideration for possible regulation under the revised toxics law, a move that is drawing protest from a group representing the workers and highlights the controversy around the policy decision.
Several experts say the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) -- or some other interagency process -- should be responsible for any new policies to establish greater “consistency” in cost benefit analysis, rather than an effort focused solely on EPA practices as the agency floated in a preliminary rulemaking.
Disputes within and outside EPA over its proposed rollback of fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards, the future of the renewable fuel standard (RFS) and other issues are highlighting concerns from various stakeholders about the agency's vehicle policy agenda.
A federal district judge has scrapped EPA's two-year delay on implementing the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction standard, backing environmentalists' claim that the delay violated Administrative Procedure Act (APA) notice-and-comment requirements and reinstating the 2015 jurisdiction standard in 26 states.
Three GOP-led states say their opponents, including the Trump administration, have failed to make a case opposing a judicial stay of the 2015 jurisdiction rule.
The power industry is supporting EPA's narrow approach for assessing the health risks of exposure to asbestos, especially its decision to preclude legacy uses, setting up a clash with critics who say the agency should broadly assess all risks as part of an effort to ban the mineral.
New from Inside EPA: An in-depth look from our editors at a specific issue facing the Agency, published weekly.
Industry attorneys say acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler's experience as a former agency career official, and later legislative staff, gives him the opportunity to learn from court defeats that blocked much of President George W. Bush's EPA deregulatory agenda, because he might be able to craft rules that address the key findings of the rulings.
EPA staff has been essentially frozen out of crafting the detailed justification for the Trump administration's plan to roll back vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards, to the point where the agency asked that its logo and a reference to its technical staff be removed from a draft regulatory impact analysis (RIA) weeks before the plan was issued.
Exclusive news, hot documents, and timely updates on legislation and litigation over EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers' joint Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule.
