In the News

Chris Zarba, EPN member and former Director, EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB), is quoted in this article about EPA’s SAB missing next month’s deadline for completing independent assessments of several high-profile EPA proposed rules, which raises the odds that the agency could issue the final versions before the reviews are complete. 

EPN member Jeff Alson, former EPA Senior Engineer and Policy Advisor, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, is widely quoted in this article about automakers siding with California’s mileage standards deal and the climate crisis rather than with the Administration’s rollback. This article also ran in High Country News.

EPN members Mark Ryan, former EPA Region 10 Counsel and Special Assistant United States Attorney, is quoted in this  article about EPA’s latest proposal aimed at preventing states from blocking infrastructure projects by limiting state’s authority under the Clean Water Act to block pipeline construction if a project does not meet state standards.

EPN member Janet McCabe, former EPA Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, was interviewed for this special about the devastating impacts of Trump’s deregulation campaign. 

Dan Costa, EPN member and former National Program Director, EPA Air, Climate, and Energy Research Program, is quoted in this article about a recent study by EPA’s Office of the Inspector General that shows the Office of Research and Development isn’t collecting enough feedback from outside groups to know whether its reports, databases, and software tools are useful to them.

EPN member Cynthia Giles, former EPA Assistant Administrator, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, wrote this op-ed about the Trump Administration encouraging federal agencies to downplay and dismiss the risks of climate change in regulations and policies. For example, the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) draft guidance on how federal agencies should consider climate when they evaluate federal actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) makes no mention of “climate change.”

Janet McCabe, former EPA Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about the fear of exposure to lead and mercury air pollution from a proposed steel-dust recycling facility by many Muncie, Indiana, residents, and in the WebMD article about several Metro Atlanta communities moving forward with plans to test air around two sterilizing facilities amid public pressure and concern about the release of toxic pollution.

EPN members Joe Goffman, former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation was also quoted in this article about the legal battle over the Trump Administration’s emissions rules for coal plants revealing a stark divide between states on climate change policy.

EPN members Joe Goffman, former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, and Janet McCabe, former EPA Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, wrote this piece about some of the changes to the New Source Review program and how they weaken public health protections.

EPN is cited in this article about criticism of the draft guidance written by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) that instructs agencies to limit the scope of how they consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts when conducting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews.

Joe Goffman, EPN member and former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about whether the EPA’s draft rule to replace Obama-era curbs on methane produced from the oil and natural gas industry will even cover methane directly. Joe was also quoted in a similar article in Greenwire.

This article discusses and quotes EPN’s comments objecting to draft guidance issued by the Council on Environmental Quality to assist federal agencies in considering greenhouse gas emissions when they evaluate federal actions, like the construction of roads and pipelines, under NEPA.

EPN member Margo Oge, former EPA Director, EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, was quoted in this article about an agreement between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and EPA to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, loosening requirements for gas mileage, and the departure of the deputy administrator of NHTSA, who was a proponent of the Trump Administration’s position on these standards.

Janet McCabe, EPN member and former EPA Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, and the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) were quoted in this article about EPN’s comments on the Region 4 proposal to modify exemptions from emissions requirements for startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM) events at power plants. A similar article appeared in S&P Global.

Mark Ryan, EPN member and former EPA Regional Counsel, Region 10, was quoted in this article about a brief filed to the Supreme Court on behalf of environmental advocates fighting a wastewater station that is polluting groundwater in Hawaii, as a win for the defendants could further weaken the Clean Water Act.

Betsy Southerland, EPN member and former Director, EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, was quoted in this article about a recent EPA rule that lifts a requirement for companies and utilities to prove that coal ash deposits of a certain size wouldn’t cause environmental damage.

Mustafa Santiago Ali, EPN member, former EPA Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice, was quoted in this article about President Trump’s comments attacking Baltimore for its pollution while the administration continues to roll back regulations on the coal industry.

Margo Oge, EPN member and former EPA Director, EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, wrote this op-ed about a recent agreement between California and several major automakers to raise fuel efficiency standards following industry opposition to the Trump Administration’s rollback of an Obama-era clean car program.

EPN member Trish Koman, former Senior Environmental Scientist, Program Manager and Supervisor in EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, was quoted in this article about emissions from school buses and their disproportionate impact on sensitive populations such as young children.

Karen Heisler, EPN member and EPA Region 9 alum, was interviewed by former EPA Region 9 Regional Administrator, Jared Blumenfeld, currently serving as California’s Secretary for Environmental Protection, in this podcast episode about Karen’s EPA experience with California’s agriculture sector and her sustainable pie business that is closing its doors.

EPN member Janet McCabe, former EPA Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about Indiana’s lead exposure issues and a recent petition urging the state health agency to lower its threshold triggering aid for children suffering from lead poisoning.

EPN members Stan Meiburg, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and former Acting Deputy Administrator, and Joe Goffman, former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, were quoted in this article about a labor dispute between EPA and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) over a new contract that the agency unilaterally implemented in July without the union’s consent.

EPN members Penny Fenner-Crisp, former Senior Science Advisor to the Director, EPA Office of Pesticide Programs, and Bernard Goldstein, former chair, EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, and former EPA Assistant Administrator for Research and Development, were quoted in this article about the rushed and haphazard process EPA used to develop its updates to the carcinogen and non-cancer risk assessment guidelines, sidelining the scientific input of two advisory committees.

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 EPA’s refusal to reinstate the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Particulate Matter (PM) Review Panel despite objections from the Committee’s members regarding their ability to adequately review federal soot standards without its expertise.