Latest news with #LeeZeldin
Washington Post
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
EPA drafts rule to strike down landmark climate finding
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to rescind a landmark 2009 legal opinion that greenhouse gas emissions put human health at risk, which underpins many of the government's actions to combat climate change, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public. The 'endangerment finding,' which determined that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare, provides the legal justification for regulating them under the Clean Air Act. In March, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency would reconsider the finding, among dozens of potential environmental rollbacks announced on what he called 'the most consequential day of deregulation in American history.' Zeldin has previously said he aims to strike a balance between economic concerns and protecting the environment. 'After 16 years, EPA will formally reconsider the Endangerment Finding,' Zeldin said in a statement at the time. 'The Trump Administration will not sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas.' A decision to completely rescind the endangerment finding is still a draft proposal and could be subject to change, according to the two individuals. The draft would also eliminate all resulting limits on motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, according to one of them, with the second person describing this outcome as likely. A government website lists the title of a document under review with the Office of Management and Budget called 'Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Reconsideration Rule,' but it gives no details on the proposal, which still must be released for public comment before it is finalized. David Doniger, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, said the proposed repeal of the endangerment finding is not justified under the law. 'They're trying to completely defang the Clean Air Act by saying, 'Well, this stuff's just not dangerous,'' Doniger said. 'That claim is just mind-bogglingly contrary to the evidence.' Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a conservative think tank, said he fully supports the administration's efforts to review the endangerment finding, saying that Congress never mandated the EPA to take action on the issue and that the agency instead relied on a single ambiguous Supreme Court case. 'It's long since past the time for an administration to review this,' Pyle said. 'Ultimately Congress should have a say when it's all said and done.' The draft rule largely avoids making scientific arguments about climate change and instead focuses on making legal arguments saying that the agency does not have the basis to act on climate change under a certain section of the Clean Air Act, the two people familiar with the matter said. Zeldin's EPA has said that the Biden administration did not properly consider all the policy implications. The finding has allowed for seven regulations on vehicle emissions with a cost of more than $1 trillion, according to the EPA. Richard Revesz, a law professor at New York University and former Biden administration official, said that repealing the endangerment finding is unlikely to hold up in court but that the move will still affect U.S. climate policy until a final judicial decision is made. 'If the endangerment finding fell, it would call into question essentially all or almost all of EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases,' Revesz said. The endangerment finding was written in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision saying that greenhouse gases are an air pollutant, essentially requiring the EPA to regulate them, according to legal experts. The endangerment finding had been updated and expanded since 2009, effectively serving as the government's understanding of the latest climate science, said Joseph Goffman, who headed the EPA's air office under President Joe Biden. 'Withdrawing the endangerment finding is in effect a repudiation of scientific reality,' Goffman said. Doniger and other people familiar with the matter said that the Trump administration official Jeffrey Clark, acting administrator in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the primary architect of the proposed repeal of the endangerment finding. 'Since 2009, I've consistently argued that the endangerment finding required a consideration of downstream costs imposed on both mobile sources like cars and stationary sources like factories,' Clark said in the March statement released by the EPA. 'Under the enlightened leadership of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the time for fresh thought has finally arrived.' As a career attorney in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration, Clark worked on the case that eventually resulted in the 2007 Supreme Court decision that prompted the EPA to write the endangerment finding. 'He's trying to get revenge,' Doniger said.
E&E News
2 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Zeldin pulls Biden-era permitting proposal
A mothballed legal clash over industrial air pollution permitting requirements dating back to President Donald Trump's first term could resume after EPA scrapped a package of proposed changes. On Monday, Administrator Lee Zeldin withdrew the 2024 draft, which would have overhauled a policy set seven years earlier that loosened the threshold for deciding whether expansions and other major upgrades at a variety of industrial facilities require permits under the agency's New Source Review program. In opting to pull the proposal, released during former President Joe Biden's tenure, Zeldin wrote that he agreed with critics who said it 'would impose additional burdens and uncertainty on regulated stationary sources without clear and justifiable corresponding benefits.' Advertisement Zeldin's move had been expected. It could now lead to a restart in dormant legal challenges to the Trump-era policy known as 'project emissions accounting' brought by environmental groups and a coalition of Democratic-leaning states.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump's EPA eliminates research and development office and begins layoffs
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. One union leader said the moves 'will devastate public health in our country'. The agency's office of research and development (ORD) has long provided the scientific underpinnings for the EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues such as air and water. The agency said on Friday it is creating a new office of applied science and environmental solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science 'more than ever before'. Once fully implemented, the changes will save the EPA nearly $750m, officials said. Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee, called the elimination of the research office 'a travesty'. 'The Trump administration is firing hardworking scientists while employing political appointees whose job it is to lie incessantly to Congress and to the American people,' she said. 'The obliteration of ORD will have generational impacts on Americans' health and safety.' EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement that the changes announced Friday would ensure the agency 'is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment, while Powering the Great American Comeback'. The EPA also said it is beginning the process to eliminate thousands of jobs, following asupreme court ruling last week that cleared the way for Donald Trump's plans to downsize the federal workforce, despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs. Total staffing at EPA will go down to 12,448, a reduction of more than 3,700 employees, or nearly 23%, from staffing levels in January when Trump took office, the agency said. 'This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,' Zeldin said, using a government term for mass firings. The office of research and development 'is the heart and brain of the EPA', said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees. 'Without it, we don't have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,' Chen said. 'Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The research office – EPA's main science arm – currently has 1,540 positions, excluding special government employees and public health officers, according to agency documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House science panel earlier this year. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists could be laid off, the documents indicated. The research office has 10 facilities across the country, stretching from Florida and North Carolina to Oregon. An EPA spokeswoman said that all laboratory functions currently conducted by the research office will continue. In addition to the reduction in force, the agency also is offering the third round of deferred resignations for eligible employees, including research office staff, spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said. The application period is open until 25 July. The EPA's announcement comes two weeks after the agency put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a 'declaration of dissent' with agency policies under the Trump administration. The agency accused the employees of 'unlawfully undermining' Trump's agenda. In a letter made public on 30June, the employees wrote that the EPA is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face retaliation for speaking out. Associated Press contributed to reporting
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Trump EPA cuts research and development office
"Under President Trump's leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback," Lee Zeldin, the agency's administrator, said in a statement. "This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars." Officials said the creation of the applied science and environmental solutions office would allow EPA to prioritize research and science while putting it "at the forefront of rulemakings and technical assistance to states." EPA said organizational changes are saving nearly $750 million. The agency had already been subject to cuts in the new administration. A July 8 Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration to implement sweeping reductions by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. In January, EPA had 16,155 employees, but the agency said it will now have 12,448 workers. It's unclear how many staff are affected by the July 18 announcement, while some will be reassigned in the agency. In an email, an EPA spokesperson said the next step would be sending notices to individual employees. The office includes biologists, chemists, epidemiologists and toxicologists. Scientists deal with emerging pollutants, including researching environmental emergencies such as floods, train derailments and wildfires, according to Nicole Cantello, legislative and political director for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents EPA workers. "EPA is hellbent on destroying the foremost environmental research organization in the world," Cantello said. "That will only result in dirty air, dirty water and more health risks for the American people." Justin Chen, the union president, said the research and development office also sets regulatory guidelines for measuring pollutant levels. The restructuring places scientific research closer to the administrator, a political appointee, who "you can very well see turning a blind eye on things that may be inconvenient to friends of the administration," Chen said. In March, Democrats on the House science committee said there were about 1,540 employees across the country in EPA's reorganization plan of the Office of Research and Development. Lawmakers warned the plans would eliminate the EPA research and development office staffing by about 50-75%. The New York Times first reported on the plans. "The obliteration of (the Office of Research and Development) will have generational impacts on Americans' health and safety," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, the committee's ranking chair, said in a July 18 statement. "This is a travesty." The research and development office had been in the crosshairs of organizations allied with Trump, as the Times reported. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, specifically cited the EPA science office in Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump to reconfigure and downsize the federal government. Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@ or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
US EPA cutting workforce by 23%, closing research division
By David Shepardson and Nichola Groom WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it is cutting the size of its workforce by at least 23% and closing its scientific research office as part of President Donald Trump's broad effort to downsize the federal government. In January, the EPA had 16,155 employees, and after layoffs and employees taking financial incentives to leave or retire, it will have a workforce of 12,448, the agency said. The restructuring will save the government $748.8 million, the EPA said. It did not specify how many of the cuts were related to the planned elimination of its Office of Research and Development, which has about 1,500 employees. "Under President Trump's leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. "This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars." ORD oversees a range of research projects, including health risk assessments of "forever chemicals" such as PFAS, investigations into respiratory illness in the rural South, and studies on the spread of Valley fever, a fungal disease exacerbated by climate change and wildfires. Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat, said the EPA "is firing hardworking scientists while employing political appointees whose job it is to lie incessantly to Congress and to the American people." She said the closure of the office "will have generational impacts on Americans' health and safety - this is a travesty." The EPA said it would create a new office focused on scientific research called the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions. The agency is also offering a third round of the deferred resignation program that will close on July 25, meaning the agency's total workforce could further shrink, a spokesperson said.
