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Observers Expect WOTUS Redo To Be More ‘Focused’ Than Other Rollbacks

Legal experts expect the Trump EPA’s plans to revise and likely roll back the Biden administration’s rule defining “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) to be “more focused” than some of the administration’s other regulatory rollback efforts given the Supreme Court’s direction in Sackett v. EPA . “In many ways, the rulemaking reform that the administration is going to embark on here is a lot more focused than virtually any of the other ones that it may be contemplating because...

States Poised To Meet As Trump EPA Cuts Threaten Environmental Work

State environmental regulators are poised to meet next week during their annual Spring meeting to discuss hot button environmental issues, amid fears that the Trump administration’s threats to slash EPA’s budget and cut key program offices imperil states’ abilities to fill in the gaps. The Environmental Council of States (ECOS) is holding its annual Spring meeting from March 23-26, during which regulators will discuss key environmental issues, including permitting efficiencies, strategies for reducing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in products,...

ORD Elimination Threatens Significant Policy Disruptions, Science Impacts

EPA’s planned elimination of its Office of Research and Development (ORD) will open the door to use of industry-backed research and impact critical work across the media offices, including particulate matter (PM) standards, Superfund cleanups, emergency response, Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rules and drinking water limits, former officials and other experts say. “With no ORD, then you really have the door open to biasing what science will be considered in setting a regulation in order to achieve the kind...

EPA Plan To ‘Eliminate’ Research & Development Office Faces Legal Doubts

EPA’s plan to “eliminate” the Office of Research and Development (ORD) is drawing stiff criticism from many Trump administration critics, who charge it would cripple the agency’s ability to craft rules according to the best available science as required by many environmental laws and may violate other statutory mandates. “It’s clear if you don’t want EPA to carry out its mission, this is the lever you pull,” a former top ORD official told Inside EPA in a March 18...

EPA Realigns Enforcement Priorities To Reflect Zeldin’s ‘5 Pillars,’ Trump EOs

EPA is realigning its enforcement priorities to reflect new Trump administration priorities, deemphasizing climate change and environmental justice (EJ) and easing enforcement against energy-sector facilities, reflecting Administrator Lee Zeldin’s “5 Pillars” along with a host of executive orders (EOs) from President Donald Trump. Jeffrey Hall, acting chief in EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA), issued a March 12 memo obtained by Inside EPA that promises modifications to the fiscal year 2024-2027 National Enforcement & Compliance Initiatives (NECIs)...

EPA Staff Cuts Could Jeopardize Broad Deregulatory Push, Observers Say

Multiple observers say the Trump administration’s plan to significantly cut EPA staffing levels and budget could jeopardize the agency’s sweeping deregulatory agenda, while environmentalists are also blasting the plans as sharply at odds with the agency’s mission to protect the environment and public health. “You need the programmatic expertise and the legal expertise to write compelling explanations for what you’re doing,” Thomas Lorenzen, an attorney with Crowell & Moring who previously served in the Justice Department (DOJ) environment section, says...

Zeldin Pledges ‘Momentous’ Push To Review Dozens Of Biden-Era Rules

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is pledging to undertake a “momentous” deregulatory effort, formally announcing the agency will reconsider dozens of Biden-era rules and other policies, including core rules affecting power plants, vehicle emissions and many other major sectors. The agency in a March 12 press release describes the effort in superlative terms, stating that they collectively “represent the most momentous day in the history of the EPA.” “Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are...

EPA Seeks GNP Remand To Rethink States, Industries Included In Rule

EPA is seeking a voluntary remand of its Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule, so it can rethink key issues including which states and industries are covered, and how the agency defines “significant contribution” of states to their neighbor’s ozone pollution, in a move that would avoid a tricky defense of the measure in court next month. The agency says in a March 10 motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in...

EPA Eyes April For Multi-Year RFS Volume Plan, Delays 2024 Compliance

EPA is aiming to propose new biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) in April or May that would aim to set volumes for 2026 and likely one or two more years, biofuels industry sources say, even as officials are delaying compliance for the 2024 implementation year to account for an expected revision of those requirements. By law, EPA should have finalized RFS volumes by last November, but it has yet to even propose them, as the politically...

EPA Orders Broad Review Of Existing Grants As Court Lifts Funding Freeze

EPA is directing agency personnel to immediately conduct a broad review of all relevant grant programs, awards and grants that have not yet been awarded to ensure their compliance and consistency with administration policy and priorities, and prevent any possible criminal or other violations. The measure threatens billions of dollars in funds just as a federal court has temporarily lifted the administration’s broad funding freeze, which had already stopped the flow of vast sums of money the last administration had...

6th Circuit Judges Appear Split In Landmark Suit On Future Superfund Costs

A three-judge appellate panel appeared split during arguments in a landmark case that tests when parties can be liable for future Superfund response costs, with one judge questioning appellee’s reading of Superfund law’s liability system, while another doubted that the appellants are not liable for such costs. On March 6, judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit heard arguments in the suit Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP (GP, et al., v. NCR Corporation, et al.) , where...

Fotouhi Says 65 Percent EPA Budget Cut Includes IRA Funds, Limiting Effect

David Fotouhi, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as EPA’s deputy administrator, is seeking to downplay Trump administration plans to cut the agency’s budget by 65 percent, telling the Senate environment committee that most of those cuts would come from supplemental Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds. During a March 5 hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) raised concerns regarding Administrator Lee Zeldin’s comments that he expected to cut 65 percent of EPA...

Supreme Court Limits EPA’s Authority To Set Receiving Water Limitations

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision has held that EPA lacks authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to set restrictions in water pollutant discharge permits that achieve an “end-result” for receiving waters, finding that it is the agency’s responsibility to determine the steps a permittee must take to ensure water quality standards are met. “A ‘limitation’ is ‘a restriction . . . imposed from without,’ not an end-result requirement leaving permittees to determine necessary steps. . . ...

Former EPA Science Advisers Weigh Reboot Of ‘Shadow’ NAAQS Reviews

Former members of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) are weighing a reboot of their non-official review panel that they hope will assess Trump administration efforts to craft new air quality standards for ozone and possibly nitrogen oxides (NOx), much as a similar panel did for particulate matter in the president’s first term. But any potential parallel review might not be able to get off the ground soon because EPA is slow in conducting reviews for new national ambient...

EPA Nominee’s Asbestos Amicus Brief Could Offer Hints At TSCA Approach

David Fotouhi, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be EPA’s deputy administrator, filed an amicus brief on behalf of industry clients in litigation over the Biden EPA’s TSCA rule phasing out chrysotile asbestos that could provide a roadmap for how the new administration may deal with the rule as well as TSCA policy more broadly. Fotouhi, who represents the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) as amicus parties in consolidated litigation over the agency’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk...

White House Seeks EPA Plan To Move Staff From D.C., Reshuffle Regions

The Trump administration is directing EPA and other agencies to develop restructuring plans, which could include moving significant numbers of staff from Washington, D.C. or consolidating regional offices -- though the push is sparking fears that the directive is merely a pretext to significantly curb staffing levels. The call to consider staff relocations is included in a broader Feb. 26 memo to agencies about reorganization and reductions in force (RIF), and it is the latest sign of Trump administration efforts...

Environmentalists Turn To FOIA To Seek Data On DOGE, Funding Freeze

Environmentalists are turning to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to seek communications and other information on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Trump administration’s funding freeze, a prelude to possible litigation as DOGE drives massive funding cuts and staff layoffs at EPA and other agencies. Sierra Club filed a Feb. 24 FOIA request seeking documentation pertaining to communications between Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, Elon Musk and a host of industry groups, law...

Trump, Zeldin ‘In Lock Step’ On Plan To Slash 65 Percent Of EPA Spending

The Trump administration is preparing to cut 65 percent of EPA spending, a goal that is likely to decimate the agency and raise significant doubts about officials’ ability to comply with legal deadlines and address “high-risk” programs, though EPA says the administrator is “in lock step” on the plan. Trump told reporters during a Feb. 26 cabinet meeting that Zeldin “thinks he’ll be cutting 65 percent of the people from [the] environmental” agency. A White House spokesman later clarified that...

GAO Warns Of Staff Shortages In ‘High Risk’ Policy Areas As Cuts Continue

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is warning that staff shortages and other issues are plaguing EPA and other agencies’ efforts to address environmental issues at “high risk” for waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement -- including EPA’s chemical risk assessment programs, federal cleanup liability and efforts to bolster climate resilience. But during a Feb. 25 House hearing, Republicans cited GAO’s just-released high-risk report to cheer the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to slash the federal workforce. In its February 2025 biennial review...

EPA Orders Staff To Comply With DOGE Request To Describe Work Activities

EPA is ordering employees to comply with a Feb. 22 Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative requiring federal workers to send a list of their accomplishments last week to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by the end of the day Feb. 24 or face termination -- a contrast with other agencies’ orders to disregard the request. The requirement was spelled out in a Feb. 24 email from the office of Administrator Lee Zeldin to all EPA employees, according to...

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