In the News

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about EPA’s proposed updates to the science and transparency rule, which would require scientists to disclose all data, including medical records, before EPA could consider the study’s findings.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about PFAS chemicals and an internal military memo that indicates an unwillingness to adhere to EPA’s recommended limits for contamination.

Janet McCabe, EPN advisor and former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about Indiana University’s interactive website that measures climate vulnerability versus public readiness in each town and county in Indiana.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about legal challenges to major environmental regulations, creating uncertainty as the Trump Administration withdraws from the Paris climate agreement and rewrites the rules of the Clean Water Act.

EPN members Mustafa Santiago Ali, former EPA Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice; and Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, were quoted in this article about EPA’s changes to regulations for coal ash and toxic wastewater and their disproportionate impacts on low-income and minority communities.

Janet McCabe, EPN member and former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about FDA and EPA’s inability to agree on how to regulate ethylene oxide, a toxic chemical used to sterilize medical devices.

Stan Meiburg, EPN board member and former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting Deputy Administrator, was also quoted in this article about changes EPA is making to its permit dispute settlement process in an attempt to streamline a lengthy, convoluted system; however, critics argue it could result in skipping important steps for vetting permits and regulations. Similar articles ran in the Washington Examiner and Law360.

Trish Koman, EPN member and former Senior Environmental Scientist, Program Manager, and Supervisor in EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, was quoted in this article about a tool developed at the University of Michigan to map communities that will bear the largest costs of rising temperatures.

EPN member Margo Oge, former Director, EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, wrote this op-ed about fuel efficiency standards and several major auto companies that recently decided to side with the Trump Administration in its conflict with California over tailpipe emission regulations.

EPN members Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, and Mustafa Santiago Ali, former EPA Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice, were quoted in this article about updates to the coal ash effluent guidelines, which loosens requirements for the treatment of chemical waste from coal plants.

Janet McCabe, EPN member and former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about EPA’s retaliatory moves against California over environmental regulations, from threatening to withhold highway infrastructure funds to an ongoing legal battle over fuel economy standards.

EPN members Mustafa Santiago Ali, former EPA Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice, and Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, were quoted in this article about EPA’s decision to relax coal ash regulations and the dangerous effects it will have on communities that will continue to live near coal ash waste ponds.

EPN member Joe Goffman, former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about the Trump Administration beginning the process of withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, which will remove commitments made to reduce carbon emissions by 26% by 2025. This article also ran in Fortune.

EPN member Mustafa Santiago Ali, former EPA Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice, was quoted in this article about EPA’s decision to relax regulations on coal ash disposal and the impact this will have on low-income and minority populations that disproportionately live near coal ash impounds.

Bob Perciasepe, EPN member and former EPA Deputy Administrator, was quoted in this article about the US officially submitting its notification to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, citing an unfair economic burden on workers and businesses.

EPN member Joe Goffman, former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about how the Trump Administration’s strategy for repealing the Clean Power Plan by limiting the legal authority to create emissions regulations in the first place may even undermine its own replacement.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about EPA’s recent decision to relax rules governing how power plants store and dispose of coal ash. Similar articles ran in Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Greenwire, and Bloomberg Environment.

Stan Meiburg, EPN board member and former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting Deputy Administrator, was quoted in this article about six air monitoring stations in Denka, Louisiana and chloroprene emissions from a nearby chemical plant; however, EPA has yet to commit funding to continue operating these stations next year.

Margo Oge, EPN member and former Director, EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, was quoted in this article about the Trump Administration’s decision to back down from freezing fuel economy standards at 2020 levels and its proposal for a 1.5% annual increase in fuel efficiency.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about toxic PFAS contamination and EPA’s understaffed offices while Congress considers attaching regulations on PFAS to a must-pass defense spending bill. A similar article ran in DC Report.

EPN member Margo Oge, former Director, EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, was quoted in this article about the decision by several large automakers to back the Trump Administration in a legal fight with California over fuel efficiency standards.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about EPA’s new cost-benefit analysis supporting the repeal of the Clean Water Rule, which critics in court are arguing was crafted to fit a pre-existing decision to roll the rule back.

John Bachmann, EPN member and former Associate Director for Science/Policy and New Programs, EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, was quoted in this article about the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee’s unprecedented split vote on particulate matter standards, demonstrating the effects of eliminating key scientific expertise from the panel.

EPN member John Bachmann, former Associate Director for Science/Policy and New Programs, EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, was quoted in this article about the gathering of former members of the Particulate Matter Review Panel to provide scientific expertise for setting particulate matter standards, despite the panel being disbanded last year.