Public Content - EPA

Optimistic Industry Groups Ramp Up Advocacy For PFAS Reporting Waivers

Industry representatives are optimistic that the Trump EPA will include several exemptions requested by industry in the agency’s revised PFAS reporting rule under TSCA that would ease burdens on regulated entities, but they are nevertheless ramping up their advocacy and urging officials to adopt a host of waivers. Several industry groups are already meeting -- or preparing to meet -- with White House officials reviewing EPA’s draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) proposed rule. And one lawyer said he is...

North Carolina Panel Adopts Delayed Groundwater Limits For Three PFAS

North Carolina’s regulatory oversight panel voted unanimously to adopt long-delayed groundwater standards for three PFAS, as members again defended their decision to whittle down the original proposal from eight PFAS to three, but a subcommittee punted a vote on surface water monitoring and minimization plans to its November meeting. North Carolina’s full Environmental Management Commission (EMC) voted unanimously Sept. 11 to adopt the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) proposed groundwater standards for three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- perfluorooctanoic...

EPA Proposes To Largely Scrap Industrial GHG Reporting Requirements

EPA is seeking to repeal reporting requirements for virtually all industrial sectors currently subject to its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), despite a congressional mandate to create such a program, and to suspend until 2034 most “Subpart W” oil and gas sector rules while also repealing mandates for gas distribution operations. The proposal follows through with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s March pledge to “reconsider” the program -- and subsequent reports that EPA would virtually eliminate it -- even as critics...

Zeldin’s Aggressive Agenda Wins Supporters’ Praise But Critics See ‘Grift’

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s aggressive deregulatory agenda and related messaging strategy is winning strong praise from conservatives, who say he is delivering on an agenda that prior Trump EPA leaders have not, though critics accuse him of “classic grift” and “gaslighting.” Myron Ebell who led the EPA transition team during President Donald Trump’s first term, says Zeldin is being highly aggressive in both his actions and his messaging. “He is doing deregulatory work every week. I don’t know how the...

As EPA Pulls Back, States Eye Creative Enforcement Amid Budget Cuts

SANTA FE, NM -- State environmental officials are grappling with ways to advance creative enforcement actions due to tight agency budgets and a “perception” that EPA and other federal officials are easing their approach to enforcement under the Trump administration. Leah Feldon, director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, suggested during a Sept. 4 panel at the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) fall meeting in Santa Fe, NM, that officials can get “creative” amid tighter budgets, including by...

Zeldin Overruled Top Appointees To Reverse Asbestos Rule Redo Plan

The Trump EPA’s recent 180-degree reversal on its initial plan to rescind the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out six uses of chrysotile asbestos and instead issue new guidance on the 2024 rule, came after Administrator Lee Zeldin overruled two other senior Trump EPA appointees, a source with knowledge of the internal matter says. According to the source, after a series of emergency meetings in July, Zeldin reversed a decision by Lynn Dekleva, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical...

Zeldin Overruled Top Appointees To Reverse Asbestos Rule Redo Plan

The Trump EPA’s recent 180-degree reversal on its initial plan to rescind the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out six uses of chrysotile asbestos and instead issue new guidance on the 2024 rule, came after Administrator Lee Zeldin overruled two other senior Trump EPA appointees, a source with knowledge of the internal matter says. According to the source, after a series of emergency meetings in July, Zeldin reversed a decision by Lynn Dekleva, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical...

DOE Dissolves Climate Skeptic Group, Spurring Doubts Over Report’s Fate

The Energy Department’s (DOE) decision to dissolve a working group that developed its controversial report questioning mainstream climate science is raising questions about the report’s fate, and its role in supporting EPA’s planned repeal of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, amid heavy criticism from the scientific community. Even so, the report’s authors and administration officials are pledging to respond to such critiques, while arguing that environmentalists erred in advancing a lawsuit alleging procedural flaws with the working group. According to...

DOE Dissolves Climate Skeptic Group, Spurring Doubts Over Report’s Fate

The Energy Department’s (DOE) decision to dissolve a working group that developed its controversial report questioning mainstream climate science is raising questions about the report’s fate, and its role in supporting EPA’s planned repeal of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, amid heavy criticism from the scientific community. Even so, the report’s authors and administration officials are pledging to respond to such critiques, while arguing that environmentalists erred in advancing a lawsuit alleging procedural flaws with the working group. According to...

Ramping Up Climate Attacks, Republicans Target ELI’s Training For Judges

Republicans are ramping up pressure on the non-profit Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its climate science education curriculum for judges, claiming the group secretly seeks to tip the legal scales in favor of regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which they say should disqualify it from receiving any EPA grants. While ELI has rejected the assertion, the GOP’s attacks signal an expanding strategy for countering plaintiffs in climate-related cases by attacking the impartiality of judges ruling in those cases. House Judiciary Committee...

EPA, State Officials Clash Over Federal Funds For Environmental Work

SANTA FE, NM -- State regulators and a top Trump EPA official are clashing over the appropriate level of financial support for states to implement core federal environmental laws, with states lobbying Congress to protect these resources while the No. 2 EPA official is renewing claims that states can cope with significantly less funds. EPA’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget “refocused categorical grants where the federal need still exists,” Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi said during Sept. 4 remarks here at...

Former Officials Caution DOGE On AI Overreliance In Regulatory Rollbacks

As the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pushes forward with a plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify EPA and other agencies’ rules for elimination, former government officials are warning against an overreliance on AI, saying officials should follow legal and human constraints to ensure public safeguards. “For their deregulatory actions to stick, agencies will need to do the hard work of developing a record that withstands judicial scrutiny,” writes former White House regulatory chief Susan Dudley...

State Environment Officials Increasingly Grapple With AI Uses, Impacts

SANTA FE, NM -- State environmental regulators are increasingly grappling with the best ways to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their programs, though officials are expressing a range of reservations about these efforts including how to combat “bias” in such systems and how to best handle the security of the agency’s data. AI-related topics featured prominently at the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) fall meeting that began here Sept. 3, with state officials considering AI to help increase the...

House Oversight Panel Launches Inquiry Into NAS Climate Science Review

House oversight committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) is launching an investigation into the National Academies’ plans for quickly reviewing post-2009 climate science in an effort to inform the Trump EPA’s endangerment finding repeal, accusing the institution of “a blatant partisan act” against agency efforts to deregulate greenhouse gases. The move follows an August announcement by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) of an expedited review of climate science in an effort to inform EPA’s proposed recission of...

Climate Experts Say DOE Climate Report Too Flawed To Inform Policy

Dozens of climate experts as well as the American Meteorological Society (AMS) are blasting the Department of Energy’s (DOE) report downplaying the risks of climate change, arguing the document’s widespread procedural and substantive flaws mean it should not be used to inform EPA’s plan to rescind its greenhouse gas risk finding. “The basic science of Earth’s climate has been well-established through two centuries of research,” and since EPA’s 2009 GHG endangerment finding, “the evidence for human-caused climate change and the...

Analysis Suggests Carbon Pricing Can Help States Lower Electricity Bills

States can use carbon pricing policies such as cap-and-trade programs to help address rising electricity bills, according to a new Resources for the Future (RFF) analysis, findings that could encourage additional state climate action as the Trump administration continues to broadly scale back federal climate efforts. “In 2025, climate policy at the federal level has been suppressed, while concerns about affordability have assumed center stage. This analysis shows that climate policy and affordability can be addressed together,” RFF researchers Nicholas...

Automakers Seek ‘Interim’ Rule Easing Near-Term Vehicle GHG Limits

Automakers are pressing EPA for an “interim final rule” or similar quick mechanism to roll back near-term greenhouse gas limits for light- and medium-duty vehicles, seeking “near-term certainty” while the agency pursues its plan to undo its landmark climate risk finding and all vehicle GHG programs. While such an “interim” move would be sure to spark legal challenges, the industry suggestion comes as the Trump administration has pursued similar near-term relief for other sectors, including oil and gas producers. The...

Automakers Seek ‘Interim’ Rule Easing Near-Term Vehicle GHG Limits

Automakers are pressing EPA for an “interim final rule” or similar quick mechanism to roll back near-term greenhouse gas limits for light- and medium-duty vehicles, seeking “near-term certainty” while the agency pursues its plan to undo its landmark climate risk finding and all vehicle GHG programs. While such an “interim” move would be sure to spark legal challenges, the industry suggestion comes as the Trump administration has pursued similar near-term relief for other sectors, including oil and gas producers. The...

In Surprise, House Poised To Unveil Draft TSCA Reform Bill Ahead Of Senate

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are poised to release a draft TSCA reform bill soon after lawmakers return from their summer recess next week, sources say, a surprise given that many observers expected the Senate to go first on advancing any legislation. “The House was putting pen to paper this month with hopes of having some draft when Congress returns,” an industry source tells Inside TSCA . “Last I heard, they are ahead of the Senate.” Such...

EPA Expects To Delay Final Rule For TRI PFAS Additions, Budget Says

The Trump EPA says it still intends to finalize a Biden-era plan to add more than 100 PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), though it is delaying even further the rule’s timeline while saying it will align it with the “Administration’s priorities” -- signaling it may apply a de minimis exemption that could largely curtail reporting levels. Although it is unclear how the Trump EPA may change the rule, it appears likely the agency will revert to exercising...

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