In the News

This article mentions and quotes EPN in its reporting on an EPA draft ozone policy assessment document that does not consider an appeals court decision, which may result in a weaker secondary ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards rule.

Brenda Mallory, EPN member and former General Counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was quoted in this article regarding potential changes to the National Environmental Policy Act and its effect on the permitting process. Brenda was also quoted in a similar article in EcoWatch.

Betsy Southerland, EPN member and former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, is quoted in this article about Trump officials working to fundamentally change the way environmental rules are crafted. 

EPN member Bonnie Bellow, former EPA Director, Public Affairs Division, Region 2, is quoted in this article about EPA’s incomplete inventory of what emergency response equipment it owns, where the pieces are located, and whether they still work.

EPN members Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Administrator for Region 2, and Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, are quoted in this article about the Trump administration’s huge backlog of unfunded toxic Superfund clean-up projects. This piece also ran in The Washington Post, The Hour, and RiverBender.com, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Betsy Southerland is quoted in a similar piece in The Hill.

EPN member Chris Zarba, former Director, EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB), is quoted in this article about letters from the SAB stating that three of President Trump’s most far-reaching and scrutinized proposals to weaken major environmental regulations are at odds with established science. Zarba is quoted in a similar article in Greenwire and Science Magazine.

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EPN Board member Stan Meiburg, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting Deputy Administrator, is quoted in this article about the Kesler Mill “brownfield” site in Salisbury, North Carolina, which has applied for a federal cleanup grant due to pollution left from its industrial past.

EPN members Bob Kavlock, former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Research and Development, and EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science; and Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, are quoted in this article about the Trump administration’s transformation of the federal government through diminishing the role of science in federal policymaking and disrupting research projects nationwide—actions that could reverberate for years.

Penny Fenner-Crisp, EPN member and former Senior Science Advisor to the Director, EPA Office of Pesticide Programs, is quoted in this article about whether some of the most toxic chemicals in our environment, including lead and asbestos, will be banned in the next decade.

EPN member Stan Meiburg, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting Deputy Administrator, was interviewed on NPR’s The Environment in Focus about the Energy Policy Act, which imposed standards for the conservation of both energy and water and required toilets to use no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush.

EPN member Janet McCabe, former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, is quoted in the Chicago Post-Tribune article about 16% staff cuts at Indiana’s primary environment enforcement agency, hampering its ability to protect the public.

EPN member Dave Ullrich, former EPA Acting Regional Administrator and Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 5, was quoted in this article about the Trump administration’s potentially devastating cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Stan Meiburg, EPN member and former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting Deputy Administrator, is quoted in this article about whether WaterSense should tighten its criteria to ensure more human waste goes with the flow in commodes earning the program’s efficiency label.

Bob Sussman, EPN member and former EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator, is quoted in this article about the December 10th public meeting on the implementation of the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals program.

EPN was mentioned and member Chris Zarba, former Director, EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB), was quoted in this article about a proposed revamp of the SAB, which would strip the rank-and-file members of the ability to help decide which upcoming agency regulations warrant scrutiny. This has generated concern that it would undercut the independence of the board. 

EPN member Janet McCabe, former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, wrote an op-ed about the South Bend Common Council’s adoption of its own climate action plan, setting a target for carbon neutrality.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about EPA’s proposed regulation for coal plant wastewater ignoring the pleas of drinking water utilities to prevent a cancer-causing chemical from being released into the nation’s waterways.

EPN member Carl Reeverts, former Project Manager in the Infrastructure Branch of EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water and Deputy Director of the EPA Drinking Water Protection Division, was quoted in this article about state drinking water regulators raising concerns about the complexity of EPA’s proposed revisions to its lead and copper rule (LCR).

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 EPA’s clean air advisers, amid disagreement, formally recommending to maintain status quo standards on soot and particulate matter pollution.

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 EPA’s clean air advisers launching a review of whether federal caps on smog and haze-forming pollutants protect public health. A similar article ran in Public News Service.

EPN member Pamela Hill, former EPA Deputy Regional Counsel in the New England Regional Office, wrote this blog entry about the intergenerational inequity of pollution and why young people are at special risk for unhealthy adulthood due to the climate crisis.

EPN member Trish Koman, former Senior Environmental Scientist, Program Manager and Supervisor in EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, was interviewed on this radio segment about the effects of rising temperatures on local communities, with particular vulnerabilities mapped by University of Michigan researchers. She was also interviewed on WEMU 89.1 about the same topic.

Betsy Southerland, EPN member and former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article about a dispute within the Trump administration over a multimillion-dollar federal study on toxic chemicals in drinking water. This article also ran in the Times Telegram and The Intelligencer.

Mustafa Santiago Ali, EPN member and former EPA Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice, was quoted in this article about a chemical plant explosion in Texas following the Trump administration’s decision to weaken the Chemical Disaster Rule. This article also ran in Common Dreams.