Latest news with #NancyBeck
E&E News
16 hours ago
- Business
- E&E News
Top EPA chemicals officer warns of ‘more bumps in the road'
Nancy Beck, the highest-ranking executive in EPA's chemicals office, acknowledged the toxics program is dealing with resource shortages while facing mountains of backlogged work and complicated legal questions. But those problems, on top of potential budget cuts and a mass staff exodus, haven't shot her confidence. 'I expect that there will be a lot more bumps in the road in the years to come,' Beck said during a webinar Wednesday afternoon celebrating the ninth anniversary of the Toxic Substances Control Act overhaul. 'It took [Leonardo DiCaprio] 30 years to win his Oscar, and it took the Cubs 108 years to win the World Series, so we're definitely going to need more than nine years when it comes to TSCA implementation.' Advertisement Beck, a Trump appointee and former chemical industry lobbyist, is the principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. The office is in charge of evaluating chemicals and regulating risky uses — authorities EPA had but were not required to act upon until 2016, when Congress passed the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, which updated the original TSCA statute.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump 2.0's Deregulation of Chemicals Has Begun
Last week, Trump appointed two veterans of his first administration, Nancy Beck and Lynn Dekleva, to lead chemical regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency. Beck is a chemical industry lobbyist. Dekleva is currently senior director at the American Chemistry Council, an organization whose positions include opposing the EPA's recent, arguably belated ban on noncritical uses of methylene chloride—a chemical so toxic that it has been shown to poison even trained workers using protective gear. These appointments, while buried beneath the landslide of other headlines out of the White House over the past week, served as a critical indicator: Specifically, they dashed the (limited) hopes some advocates were nursing that right-wingers' newish preoccupation with environmental health—embodied primarily in the chaotic figure of Trump's Health and Human Services nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—might make the second Trump administration marginally more environmentally friendly on chemical and plastics regulation than the first one. The Washington Post, covering the appointments, highlighted the typical rationale for appointing industry insiders to such posts: that the EPA's chemical approval process needs reform. 'The EPA's flawed decision-making process has consequently inhibited American innovation and our ability to compete in the global market,' according to Republican Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky. The Post also quoted lawyer Dimitri Karakitsos, who has represented chemical companies, arguing the approval process for new chemicals is actually impeding environmental progress: 'A lot of these new chemicals tend to be greener and safer, and we want that innovation on the market,' he said. Is that true? It's a counterintuitive take, given that the EPA has come under heavy criticism in recent years for failing to ban even chemicals that dozens of other countries have chosen to ban over links to severe health damage. I called two experts to get their perspectives on the matter. 'I actually do think that there are tremendous innovations and discoveries of new chemicals happening today,' Yale School of the Environment professor and former director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program Paul Anastas told me. 'And yes … when you can demonstrate these things—that it's safer, greener, performs better—there should be a more effective way of fast-tracking these innovations into the marketplace so that they can make their positive benefits.' At the same time, he said, 'the role of science at EPA is fundamental, and everything that the EPA does must be science-based.' A key part of the industry position, however, is that U.S. regulatory procedures are somehow exceptionally obstructive, particularly in an international context. Those with experience in this international context say that argument doesn't hold up. 'The idea that U.S. chemical regulation is so advanced that it hinders and slows down U.S. competitivity is preposterous,' said David Azoulay, director of environmental health at the Center for International Environmental Law, or CIEL, over the phone from Geneva. The U.S. has 'the least stringent, least efficient, and least protective legislation compared to any of the other major economies—and that includes economies like the EU of course, which is the most often mentioned, but also includes Korea, Japan, even China.' The EU, for example, 'regulates or bans over 1,300 chemicals in cosmetics. The U.S. bans less than two dozen.' The anti-regulatory argument also rests on the assumption that regulating to prevent environmental harm slows innovation. But when CIEL investigated this in 2013, Azoulay said, using patent applications as a proxy for innovation, 'every time there was a new type of regulatory control measure being put in place around phthalates, we saw a spike in a number of patents being filed for new products or new substances or new applications that didn't use phthalates.' He also pointed to a wealth of recent research showing that, contrary to the assumption that regulations hurt the economy, under-regulating harmful chemicals can cost billions of dollars. These studies probably aren't going to prevent people from arguing that EPA regulations harm American companies' ability to compete. 'An additional perspective that's useful to consider,' Azoulay added, 'is that, contrary to some simplified beliefs, the chemical industry is very much a global industry. All of those major chemical producers are multinationals that have production bases in the U.S., in Europe, in China, in the Gulf, in other places, that try to take advantage of being closest to the primary materials or the markets or whatever.' And the arguments everywhere seem to be the same: 'Those rules in that particular jurisdiction are hindering competitivity. But because it's the same companies making the same arguments, what they're actually doing is trying to bring the floor down, and trying to lower the level of protection of health and the environment.' If the track record of the first Trump administration is any indicator, those companies may be pleased by what happens next at the EPA. Then again, maybe they won't. When the first Trump administration tried to weaken methylene chloride regulations, for example, they were quickly and repeatedly sued. Rushed, poorly evidenced environmental rollbacks in the first Trump administration were what allowed groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council to boast that 'on average, we sued once every ten days for four years, and we won victories in nearly 90 percent of the resolved cases.' As these battles play out, however, many fear the toll—to insufficiently protected workers, to the people passively absorbing toxic chemicals in their environment, and to ecosystems—may mount.A new study pushes back against earlier ones suggesting that the Atlantic Ocean's system of currents is slowing down. This study finds no evidence of the system weakening at all—very good news, given that, as previously discussed in this newsletter, a lot of agriculture depends on the weather systems that depend, in turn, on these currents. Maryland's renewable energy program isn't working, a new report suggests. Inside Climate News's Aman Azhar explains the findings and talks to the report's authors, who say this is a 'well-known problem in the state that people don't want to talk about.'A previous edition of this newsletter noted that a so-called attribution study of climate change's contribution to the L.A. fires might take time. Only two weeks later, a report from the World Weather Attribution group calculates that climate change made the hot, dry, windy conditions that helped the fires spread 35 percent more Mountaintop Mines Are Turned Into Neighborhoods Old coal mines that blew the tops off mountains have left lots of manmade plateaus in Kentucky. While these 'ecological graveyards' may not be as lush as the landscape they've replaced, Austyn Gaffney writes, they may prove to be a lifeline in a state struggling to adapt to increasingly severe floods: In 2022, apocalyptic flooding swept across eastern Kentucky, killing 45 people, destroying 542 homes and damaging thousands more. Now, instead of rebuilding in the floodplain, the state is permanently lifting residents onto safer land. Officials are more than two years into a nearly $800 million plan to reclaim these landscapes again, turning them from deserts into developments.… Seven communities across four counties, with aspirational names like Skyview and Olive Branch, have been designed for 665 brand-new properties, some of which will run on solar. Fourteen houses have been completed and about a dozen people have moved in to two communities called Thompson Branch and Wayland, according to the state. Read Austyn Gaffney and Jon Cherry's feature in The New York Times. This article first appeared in Life in a Warming World, a weekly TNR newsletter authored by deputy editor Heather Souvaine Horn. Sign up here.
The Hill
27-01-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Chemical, oil industry vets nab roles at EPA
Energy & Environment The Big Story Chemical, oil industry vets nab roles at EPA A significant number of political appointees who have joined the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Trump used to work for or have lobbied on behalf of the chemical and fossil fuel industries. The appointments come as the administration has made apparently competing promises about aggressively cutting regulations while also 'Making America Healthy Again.' Among the figures appointed to the agency is Nancy Beck, who used to work at the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade and lobbying group, before serving in the EPA during Trump's first term. Beck has faced controversy over her handling of chemical safety during her prior tenure in the administration. Also joining the administration is Lynn Dekleva, who spent about 30 years at chemical giant DuPont, according to her LinkedIn page. DuPont is well known for, among other things, its relationship to 'forever chemicals,' a toxic family of chemicals also known as PFAS that have been linked to several cancers and other health concerns and are the subject of EPA regulations, like many toxic substances. Welcome to The Hill's Energy & Environment newsletter, I'm Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will affect the energy and environment sectors now and in the future: Trump's move to freeze Biden-approved funding draws howls from Democrats Democrats are sounding the alarm over President Trump's move to freeze funding approved in two of former President Biden's signature laws. Full Story Trump orders agencies to override California policies that 'unduly burden' water deliveries President Trump directed U.S. government agencies to override California's water policies as needed — slamming the state's handling of the Los Angeles region's wildfires in an executive order this weekend. Full Story Los Angeles wildfires raise concerns about the toxic pollutants they could be unleashing The infernal blazes burning in Southern California are raising concerns about the potential airborne hazards they may be leaving behind. Full Story In Other News Branch out with a different read from The Hill: Trump ousts more than a dozen inspectors general in late night action President Trump on Friday ousted several inspectors general within government agencies overnight, shaking up federal oversight just days after returning to the White House. Full Story What We're Reading News we've flagged from other outlets touching on energy issues, the environment and other topics: Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more Europeans by 2100, study finds (The Guardian) Trump administration halts environmental litigation, sidelines lawyers, sources say (Reuters) Why did ' climate change,' human 'evolution' vanish from Iowa's proposed science standards? (Des Moines Register) What Others are Reading Two key stories on The Hill right now: DOJ fires prosecutors who worked on Trump criminal cases Justice Department (DOJ) officials fired several prosecutors who worked on President Trump's criminal cases, saying they could not 'trust' them. Read more Live updates: Trump addresses House Republicans at retreat Monday kicks off the second week of President Trump's return to the White House, and it's slated to be a busy one. Read more
