The Biden Administration

CEQ Facing Interagency Pushback On ‘Narrow’ Phase 1 NEPA Rewrite

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is facing pushback from federal agencies that are warning its draft final phase 1 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule fails to meet administrative law requirements and will only sow confusion and cause delays of critical infrastructure projects, sources say. The draft version of the final rule, which is currently undergoing Office of Management & Budget (OMB) review, seeks to “narrowly” revise how agencies implement the bedrock environmental law. CEQ sent its...

Environmentalists Push To Expand EPA Rights Office For ‘Affirmative’ Work

Environmental and environmental justice (EJ) groups are urging EPA to expand the capacity of its External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO) so it can conduct “affirmative” compliance reviews to ensure that agency funding recipients are not discriminating in violation of the federal civil rights law. The groups, part of the Title VI Alliance, also want ECRCO to set clear, consistent and substantive expectations to encourage compliance, and clarify funding recipients’ obligations to collect and use data in decision making. The...

Biden EPA reverses Trump-era limits on SAB’s rule reviews

The Biden EPA is reversing a Trump-era policy that limited the role of the agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) in deciding which regulatory actions it could review, saying in a Feb. 28 announcement that the new process “will restore opportunities for peer review and strengthen the independence of the board.” “Everything we do as an agency must adhere to the highest standards of scientific integrity, and today’s action is a major step towards stronger, independently reviewed science,” EPA Administrator Michael...

Advisors Urge White House To Include Race In Agencies’ EJ Scorecards

Several White House advisors are urging officials to include race as a factor in developing a scorecard to track agencies’ progress on implementing President Joe Biden’s environmental justice (EJ) agenda, in response to outrage that the administration excluded race as a factor in a newly released EJ screening tool for prioritizing funding. During a Feb. 24 meeting of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC), Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a...

EPA Steps Up Push To Institutionalize EJ, Civil Rights, Bolster Enforcement

The Biden EPA is stepping up efforts to institutionalize and fortify its focus on environmental justice (EJ), including creating a new Senate-confirmed assistant administrator slot to oversee the move while also merging and re-organizing its civil rights and EJ offices to better align the two offices and beef up related enforcement. Administrator Michael Regan earlier this month announced the appointment of Robin Morris Collin, an Oregon law professor, to serve as a senior EJ advisor in his office, while also...

Advocates Strongly Oppose CEQ Decision To Drop Race From EJ Tool

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates are strongly opposing the Biden administration’s decision to exclude race from its newly released screening tool for allocating infrastructure and other funds to overburdened communities, charging it is a political rather than a scientific decision that also abandons core voters who were critical to President Joe Biden’s election. EJ advocates say that by dropping race from the screening tool, minority communities will certainly be overlooked. They also stress that studies consistently show that race is the...

CEQ Floats Justice40 Screening Tool But Defends Decision To Drop Race

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has released its long-awaited tool to help federal agencies identify disadvantaged communities eligible for billions of dollars in funding under the administration’s environmental justice (EJ) Justice40 initiative. While the tool includes a series of environmental, economic and other metrics for determining whether communities that are overburdened by pollution and face other disadvantages are eligible for funds under Justice40, the current version of the tool does not include race as a factor, despite...

CEQ drops race from EJ screening tool

The Biden administration’s delayed climate and economic justice screening tool that the White House is under pressure to release will not include race as a factor, rejecting the advice of a key advisory committee that the tool prioritize majority minority communities for infrastructure funding and other goals. Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on environmental Quality (CEQ) which is designing the tool, told the New York Times in an interview published Feb. 15 that officials are concerned...

Judge Blocks Use Of SCC Estimates Under ‘Major Questions’ Doctrine

A federal district judge is blocking the Biden administration from using its revamped social cost of carbon (SCC) climate damage estimates to help justify rules and other policies that curb greenhouse gases, finding in part that President Joe Biden lacked authority to order its use under the so-called “major questions” doctrine. The ruling will stymie the administration’s efforts to revive and update the values -- which are used to estimate the climate benefits of GHG cuts -- hampering officials’ efforts...

Hill Democrats Press White House To Quickly Release EJ Screening Tool

Key congressional Democrats are pressing White House officials to immediately release a test version of its highly anticipated Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which is intended to help identify environmental justice (EJ) communities that could most benefit from federal infrastructure funding under the Justice40 program. Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), along with several key House and Senate committee chairs and other lawmakers, sent a Feb. 9 letter to President Joe Biden urging him “to promptly...

EPA Details Gaps In ‘Cumulative Impact’ Research Ahead Of SAB Meeting

EPA is outlining research gaps and barriers to the use of “cumulative impact” analysis in agency decision-making as well as existing research that can be leveraged to advance the field ahead of a consultation with its Science Advisory Board (SAB) on the discipline, which has emerged as a key part of Administrator Michael Regan’s equity agenda. SAB quietly posted the agency’s white paper on its website in preparation for the scheduled March 2 and 7 consultation that will focus on...

White Paper

Charge Questions


Former ORD chiefs urge Senate leaders to confirm Frey

Seven former chiefs of EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) office are urging Senate leaders to swiftly confirm Chris Frey, President Joe Biden’s nominee as the office’s newest assistant administrator, touting both his qualifications and their concerns over ORD’s lack of a confirmed leader, which has now lasted more than a decade. “This month it will be over a decade since [EPA’s ORD] has had a confirmed Assistant Administrator. As former Assistant Administrators of the EPA ORD we write...

Regan taps Oregon law professor as senior EJ advisor

EPA Administrator Michael Regan has tapped Robin Morris Collin, an Oregon law professor, as his senior advisor on environmental justice (EJ) issues while suggesting that her appointment is part of the agency’s broader effort to create a new Senate-confirmed slot to oversee its efforts to address EJ concerns. “From my first day at EPA, I have committed to embedding equity, environmental justice, and civil rights into the DNA of the Agency’s programs, policies, and processes, and to delivering tangible results...

David Cash tapped as EPA Region 1 administrator

EPA has selected David Cash, an academic and former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, to head the agency’s New England regional office, according to agency sources who say the appointment was shared with staff in an internal email. Cash has most recently served as a consultant and fellow with both the University of Massachusetts Boston Sustainable Solutions Lab and the Harvard University Center for the Environment, according to his LinkedIn profile. Previously, he spent six years as...

EPA Documents Show Rise In Science Integrity Claims During Trump Years

EPA has quietly resumed releasing data on alleged scientific integrity violations and requests for advice from the agency’s career staff after slowing publication of the documents in recent years, starting with a pair of documents that show a sharp rise in alleged violations during the Trump administration. Francesca Grifo, EPA’s scientific integrity official, told attendees at the Toxicology Forum’s annual winter meeting Jan. 25 that the agency released on its website earlier this month the results from its 2021 agency-wide...

Experts Debate Impact Of OIRA’s Lack Of Nominee On EPA Rulemakings

More than a year into his administration, President Joe Biden has yet to nominate a director for the White House Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), though experts are divided on whether the lack of a confirmed leader to the key regulatory review office is having a major impact on EPA and other agency rulemakings. Sources across the political spectrum note that OIRA is considered a bit of a “black box” as well as a “place where rules go...

CSB Chair Delays New Actions To Await Biden Appointees’ Formal Arrival

Katherine Lemos, chair of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), said at a recent meeting that she would delay votes on “the mounting number of recommendations” before the board until its two new members who won Senate confirmation in December are formally sworn in -- a step she said could come as soon as this week. During a Jan. 26 CSB business meeting, Lemos announced the decision to hold off on votes to adopt new policies for transparency...

Advisors Urge EPA To Strengthen EJ Measures In Draft Strategic Plan

EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) is urging the agency to significantly strengthen the first-time environmental justice (EJ) provisions in its draft strategic plan, including by imposing tougher emissions limits on facilities in EJ communities and by adding accountability measures for EPA, states and partner agencies. The comments , made available last week, come a little more than two months after EPA ended the formal public comment period on the plan, which covers fiscal years 2022-2026 and is expected...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.