In the News

John Bachmann, EPN member and former Associate Director for Science/Policy and New Programs, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour about EPA’s controversial plan to change how it calculates the health risks of air pollution.

EPN member Stan Meiburg, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and former Acting Deputy Administrator, is quoted in this Bloomberg article about utility groups remaining neutral on EPA’s new standards for the chemical perchlorate in drinking water until the agency releases supporting documents explaining how it chose a threshold of 56 micrograms of perchlorate per liter of water.

EPN is mentioned in this CNN article about the seven former Democratic and Republican EPA administrators who sent a letter to Congress offering assistance, as the Trump administration seeks to roll back clean air and water regulations, among other policy changes. This story also ran in numerous other media outlets: KLIF-AM, WOKI-FM, KAOK-AM, California Coastal Coalition, KMJ-AM, News Stand Hub, Reddit, WRAL.com, Channel 3000, and WFMZ-TV.

EPN Advisor William Ruckelshaus, former EPA Administrator (1970-1973 and 1983-1985), and EPN member Bonnie Bellow, former EPA Director, Public Affairs Division, Region 2, are quoted in this article about seven former EPA administrators sending a letter to Congress, offering their assistance in creating an oversight strategy and a path forward for the agency.

EPN member Janet McCabe, former EPA Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, is quoted in this article about the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight panel holding a hearing to probe the EPA’s use of co-benefits. The hearing examined EPA’s December 2018 proposal related to mercury emissions from power plants. Janet is also quoted in another Bloomberg article, as well as articles in Greenwire and Think Progress, also on the topic of the Trump administration planning to write new rules for how it weighs the human costs and benefits of environmental regulations.

David Coursen, EPN member and former EPA Office of General Counsel, wrote an op-ed published in Water Online about the EPA budget proposal’s staggering cuts to water protection and restoration programs, despite Administrator Wheeler’s claim that drinking water is the world’s greatest environmental challenge. For more information, see EPN’s fact sheets on Proposed FY2020 Cuts to Clean Water and Proposed FY2020 Cuts to Clean Drinking Water.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, was interviewed about her decision to leave EPA after 40 years due to Trump’s plan to gut the agency. She continues to speak out as the current administration proposes staggering budget cuts and regulatory rollbacks that endanger public health and the environment.

EPN member Mustafa Santiago Ali, former EPA Senior Advisor and Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization, is quoted in this  article about the long history of municipal solid waste incinerators in America and the resistance among the low-income and minority communities where the vast majority are located.

EPN member John Bachmann, former EPA Associate Director for Science/Policy and New Programs, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, is quoted in the Bloomberg Environment article about EPA’s goal of reviewing ozone pollution standards by the end of 2020, which may not be possible and could risk undermining the entire project.

Kathy Setian, EPN member and former EPA Superfund Project Manager, Region 9, is quoted in this article about a landfill—or “on-site waste disposal cell,” as the DOE calls it—being built in south central Ohio, which will be one of the largest nuclear waste dumps east of the Mississippi when finished.

EPN member Margo Oge, former Director, EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air and Director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, wrote an op-ed about the insufficient law that sets federal fuel economy standards and how President Trump has contorted it into an illegitimate way to attack states working to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution. Margo is also quoted in a Climatewire article that talks about her opinion piece.

EPN members Dan Costa, former National Program Director, EPA Air, Climate, and Energy Research Program; Joe Goffman, former Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel, EPA Office of Air and Radiation; Anna Phillips, former Program Manager, EPA Office of International Affairs; and Chris Zarba, former Director, EPA Science Advisory Board, are quoted in this about whether the administration might restrict the use of climate models in the future, potentially leading to large changes in public policy.

Wayne Nastri, EPN member and former EPA Administrator, Region 9, was interviewed on What about the air we breathe and the progress in air quality over the years, despite Los Angeles and Southern California counties receiving a failing grade on the American Lung Association’s report card.

EPN member Stan Meiburg, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting Deputy Administrator, was interviewed in this segment comparing 2008 and 2019 versions of a guidebook on managing disaster debris. In spite of the administration’s position on climate change, the revised 2019 guidebook emphasizes the connections between natural disasters and climate, and the need to be prepared.

EPN member Robert Sussman, former EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to Administrator, is quoted in this article about whether the public can trust TSCA risk evaluations without access to full and unredacted copies of health and safety information.

EPN members Robert Sussman, former EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to Administrator, is quoted in this article about House lawmakers signaling that they are willing to pursue bipartisan negotiations on a Democratic bill that would outright ban the import and use of asbestos due to frustration over EPA’s handling of the substance under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, is quoted in the Citizen Truth article about The New York Times report that revealed EPA officials disregarded the recommendations of their own scientists when issuing a rule that restricts Asbestos use but does not ban it. 

EPN members John Bachmann, former Associate Director for Science/Policy and New Programs, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, and Betsy Southerland, former Director, EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, are quoted in this article (11th from the top) about EPA’s proposed transparency rule, which would require the agency to rely only on methods and data that are specifically identified, publicly available, and substantially reproducible.

EPN member Mustafa Santiago Ali, former EPA Environmental Justice Administrator, was interviewed on NPR Stateside about the need for marginalized communities to have a voice in environmental policy.

EPN members Robert Sussman, former EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to Administrator; Betsy Southerland, former Director, EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water; and Gary Timm, former EPA Chief of the Chemical Testing Branch of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, are quoted in this article about EPA’s finalized rule regulating renewed uses of asbestos, which expanded the number of applications subject to regulation but cut some of those applications from a related risk evaluation of existing uses, angering critics and renewing the call for a total ban on asbestos.

EPN member Betsy Southerland, former Director, EPA Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, wrote an op-ed about the Trump administration’s Draft Interim Recommendations to Address Groundwater Contaminated with PFOA and PFOS, chemicals that are part of a class of per- and polyfluorinated (PFAS) substances found in many consumer products. They persist for years in the environment and in the human body and have the potential to cause serious health effects.

EPN members Robert Sussman, former EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to Administrator is quoted in this article about industry lawyers who represent chemical and other industries generally backing EPA’s recently expanded significant new use rule (SNUR) governing legacy uses of asbestos.

Dr. Bernard Goldstein, EPN member and former EPA Chair of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and former EPA Assistant Administrator for Research and Development, is quoted in this article about the House Oversight and Government Reform Environment Subcommittee’s hearing on climate change and how Congress must address increased rates of asthma, the spread of disease, and an uptick in mental and behavioral health issues linked to a warming and increasingly polluted planet.

Betsy Southerland, EPN member and former EPA Director, Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, is quoted in this article about The White House’s decision to drop a default threshold for EPA’s groundwater cleanup guide for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The decision is sparking charges that regulators may not pursue some cleanups because they will be harder to justify.