Host that does it for todays washington journal. The American Enterprise institute is hosting epa administrator andrew weaver. That conversation is beginning now. Administrator we were, he will have some opening remarks and then i will have questions. You can ask questions to pitch as you can see on our event page and or youtube page, and questions on twitter at hashtags airandwater. First, his opening remarks. Admin. Wheeler i want to thank aei for inviting me to be here today. Month, i provided reflections on the past 50 years of the amber mental Protection Agency and laid out a plan for its future at the nixon library. Today i would like to explain based on what we have accomplished over the past 40 years, how we are going to get to this future. It is incontrovertible that today, the environment is in better shape under President Trump than we found it. Air pollution in this country has fallen 7 . Manyyear, the apa delisted superfund sites. And we will ddelist another 27 this year. Apa is supporting 7100 high priority projects in 27,000 jobs during President Trumps first term. The trump apa has recovered more this trump epa has recovered more criminal and civil nenalties in a firstterm tha the Obamabiden Administration did in its first term. This is a great deal and great news in terms of americas wellbeing, but like most great news, you really read about it in newspapers or watch it in new channels. The newsradio purposely and the reports in a good news from this the news media purposely under reports in a good news from this administration. The Trump Administration has now collected more in civil and criminal penalties than the Obamabiden Administration due to its first term. A big deal was made when President Trump left the paris claimant accords, which would have treated the u. S. Economy unfairly, yet the u. S. Has seen a 15 reduction in Energy Related Carbon Dioxide emissions since 2005. During this time, the u. S. Cut its greenhouse emissions measured in tens more than britain, germany, italy, and canada combined. China meanwhile has increased their emissions by over 50 since 2005. And the trumpet menstruation in its first term has taken then its first term has taken four concrete actions to reduce emissions. First, the Clean Energy Rule which will cut overall emissions by 34 from 2000 five levels by 2030. Second, i was safe vehicles loco will reduce emissions compared to the previous administrations standards which allowed companies to comply with purchasing credits which did not impact emissions. Third, we have proposed a new rule treating emissions from aircraft, that represents the first time the u. S. Has ever adopted emissions standards for aviation. Fourth, the new rules make it easier and less expensive for Natural Gas Companies to capture future fugitive methane emissions from natural gas and infrastructure. As john adams once said, facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. It is unfortunate that there is a lot of evidence that during the previous administration, especially in its second term, and overweighting focus on Climate Change that took the form of virtuesignaling in capitals. This behavior came at the expense of running the agency and ensuring a better environment for all americans. Aside from their attempt to rule,the United States they almost solely focused on Climate Change at the expense of other environmental indicators. Let me explain. The firstne more in four years of the Trump Administration to improve the environment than probably any administration except perhaps doing the very first years of the epa. I would argue that the trump and the Trump Administration has carried out more than any other administration the core mission a, which is to protect health and the environment. The clean water will come in the Affordable Energy rule, the safe e;lg, the ozoned acts and others will all be finalized this year, all regulations that will improve the environment. At the same time, we inherited the largest backlog of unfinished Agency Business in our history. During the final few years of the Obama Administration, an enormous backlog of unprocessed up. Its of all kinds piled at the beginning of the admin station, we inherited a backlog of 700 state implementation plans under the Clean Air Act. We have taken action on over 500 of these submittals. Sipss in cities need the approved so they can focus on cleaning up your environment. Environmental work may not be getting done, and approval of sips can help reduce air pollution. Companies shot and wounded facilities in other areas is that avoid for this instead of weight for s companieshut and move facilities is said to wait for Water Quality conditions to improve. This backlog of sips has been one of the visible and real causes of environmental injustice in the country for the past several decades. In a location that was out of attainment could not make it back into attainment until sips were processed. Limbo either approved or rejected for variety of reasons, including because they were deficient and could not be approved. By the send of approving these plans or diesel proving them, prior administrations let them sit sometimes for decades. We discovered applications that were filed in the 1990s and unprocessed in places like San Joaquin Valley in california, and in arizona. Filed8, we approved a sip by wyoming in 1987, and we discovered an unprocessed sip for nevada from october 1970 5, 45 years ago. Pollution, ther backlog of the National Pollutant discharge elimination system, or mpdes permits, which regulate pollution of u. S. Waters has been reduced 32 since 2017. Regarding superfund cleanups, a similar story. Too Many Americans have lived near superfund sites for too long. Cleaning up these sites has been a major focus of the Trump Administration. In his first three years in office, we completed full or partial deletion of 55 sites from the National Priorities year, theding 27 last most in a single year since 2001. Of the 27 sites deleted last year, 14 have been on the list since the 1980s, seven since the 1990s. We have maintained last years accelerated pace and will complete the deletion process for another 20 74 partial sites by the end of this fiscal year. This will bring the phone number of full or partial deletions in President Trumps first term to at least 82 sites, equal to the eight your total of the prior administration. So it is worth repeating that the Trump Administration, in its first four years, has matched the amount of superfund sites delisted by the Obama Biden Administration in its eight years in office, and many of the sites delisted this year have been on the npl for more than 30 years. It tells local communities and the broader public that important work has been done, is the site, if appropriate eligible for funding and can be freed of the stigma of being a superfund site. When you reflect on how many of the most polluted and hazardous responsibility for our in some of the most disadvantaged communities in this country, you start to realize how important a mission epa has been given by congress. When we clean up for what its sites quickly and returned them to the communities for proved the epa is strengthening our country where it needs to be strongest, at our foundation. There are many other examples of our working down of this backlog. That defense family of best that family ofe pfas chemicals has been around the 1950s and no administration took them on. We took an action plan that uses all of our offices to deal with this emerging chemical of concern. The action plan outlines more than 20 key focus areas with both short and longterm goals and is the agencys first Longtime Program National Risk and communication plan. Concerning the lead in copper pipes, the Obamabiden Administration claims to have worked on it for eight years with nothing to show. They even had a wakeup call flint, michigan in 2014, but still did nothing. We will finalize our copper rule in the next several weeks which will call for the testing of lead in all schools and day care centers. Indelivered a final rule april 2019 strengthening asbestos regulations for the first time in over 30 years. Closed a dangerous loophole that could have allowed contaminated floor tiles, Building Materials and installation to return to the u. S. Marketplace without going review. Epa we have completely eliminated the backlog of epa actions on the states list of impaired waters, marking the first time in a decade that the backlog has been eliminated. Since 2017, the epa has approved more than 7000 deals to restore polluted waters, in 25 increase from the preceding three and a half years. The backlog of actions on state deals has fallen dramatically from over 100 in 2017, to just a single state priority one in july of this year, more than a 99 decrease in the backlog. We are doing so while proving a higher percentage of state Water Quality standards than at any point during the last administration yet. Despite i was significant administrations to update water standards, some states are actively trying to derail one of the most successful what are some partnerships by bringing a frivolous lawsuit over the bay. Peake the progress in restoring the Chesapeake Bay in the past decade is evidence of how strong partnerships with states can create better environmental outcomes. So it is unfortunate that some downstream states choose politics over progress in an Election Year and sue the epa over a position actually developed by the Obama Administration a few years ago. Note, we areitive supporting American Energy by reducing the underground injection control or uic class ii permit backlog by 7 since the previous since the begine administration. We cut the wait time for a permit to less than 150 days down from the average of 500 days in the past. In january of 2017, the backlog of new chemicals under review have grown to over 500. As of today, the number of chemicals under review for over 90 days is less than 200. The agency has completed over 2900 new chemical submissions since the beginning of this administration. When it comes to enforcement, we have reversed the decline in the epa criminal program that began in 2011 by bringing on new agents. 2019, the number of new criminal cases opened increased for the arst time since 2013, with 48 increase since 2017, and the ofber of new criminal cases potential environmental crimes opened by the epa. It turns out delivering for American Communities also means there are things we are not doing. We are not with amazing enforcement, we are using it for social engine or using it for social engineering. We are simply using our enforcement and compliance tools to solve environmental problems like protecting drinking water, reducing lead exposure and revitalizing communities. These accomplishments could not have happened without the hard work of our career employees. By implementing the lane Management System across the agency in 2017, we freed up many of the bureaucratic obstacles that have plagued the agency for so long. This is a lot of information and detail, but it is only by being honest about the past that we can ensure for a Better Future for the communities in this country that have been left behind. Because it goes without saying that america is a nation made up of communities, and communities are the foundation of our nation, not the other way around. This is an issue at the core of our countrys fight for Environmental Justice. After my speech at the nixon library, i was criticized by the press over our Environmental Justice record. The Trump Administration who done more to elevate environment of justice than any president since george h. W. Bush program. He first week elevated Environmental Justice out of the Enforcement Office and into the administrators office. Being stuck in enforcement regulated Environmental Justice to be considered after the fact is said about the beginning of our policies. Second, the Opportunity Zone tax credits created by the Tax Reform Act of 2017 that has done more to help environmental communities within burma to problems than all the grants of years. T many past, americas Water Infrastructure act signed into law by President Trump in 2018, codified to the office of averment of justice within the epa for the first time. We have been incorporating Environmental Justice through our Program Offices and improving communities at a pace not seen before. Lets look at our super fan sites that superfund sites. In north lets look at superfund sites. In northumberland him, alabama alabama, wemingham, have cleaned up 840 properties and removed 60,000 tons of material contaminated with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals from that community. At the site in east chicago, indiana, we have cleaned up 671 Residential Properties and removed contaminated soil from 95 of the calumet neighborhood, allowing the city to develop lots. At the Southside Chattanooga lead site intimacy, we have cleaned up lead contamination in eight historically black and low income residential neighborhoods, parks, schools, playgrounds and daycares, and added the site to the National Party list. In colorado, the epa accelerated the cleanup of 1900 Residential Commercial properties polluted with lead and arsenic by a smelter closed almost a century ago. The decision accelerated the cleanup completion by almost seven years. Georgia, in only two short years since a doctoral student raised awareness of lead levels in the citys westside neighborhood, the epa hazard to removed contaminated soil from over 140 properties. When i visited the site last year, i got to see firsthand the work of the epa was doing to get sampling and cleanup underway to protect the health and safety of those living in the English Avenue communities, which are among the citys poorest. On water with the government to justice our Region Office worked to help the poorest communities in puerto rico recover from the devastating hurricanes. Of 2017 by partnering with ngos, we helped provide solar panels and Battery Storage for Water Systems, allowing them to continue to provide water during power outages. Rule,ur lead and copper we focus attention on ways to ensure the worst contaminated types are not the last pipes are not the last miles replaced because everyone regardless of zip code deserves safe drinking water. It was soair quality, frustrating to see previous administrations not focus on this. Since 2017, we have taken action sips, designated 54 nonattainment areas, and we believe another 25 areas can be designated by 2022. Areas that have regained attainment include annapolis, chicago and tampa regained attainment for lead in 2018, and st. Louis in cleveland for particular it matter, in 2019. Meeting these standards are text people from asthma, heart and lung disease, heart attacks, behavior and learning problems, and a whole host of other health issues. If we want to help communities in the future, we have to recognize where we made mistakes in the past. It goes without saying that neglect is a form of harm. It is not fair to act in ways that harm Communities Just because they dont have enough political power to stop the neglect. What we should be striving for in the epa in coming years is a Community Driven environmentalism that promotes community revitalization. This will do more for Environmental Justice done all the rhetoric in political all thes than rhetoric in political campaigns i want to conserve the environment for future generations, but i also want more recognition and attention put towards areas in the country that still need our help 50 years after the epas creation. Our environment in the u. S. Taken as a whole is much cleaner than other great powers and cleaner than most of the rich, industrialized economies around the world. But we are at an Inflection Point in the direction were going as a nation regarding protection. I have a clear vision for the epa that involves focusing on communities and citizens here in the United States. For its 50th Anniversary Commemoration this year, we selected a good slogan, progress for a stronger future. Last week i was in st. Louis talking with these leaders and thening about some of environmental training our office is doing with religious organizations in missouri. And the pandemic has hurt church finances as with everywhere else, and the ability to develop better environmental behaviors, energy savings, and money measures helps churches keep their doors open. The epa working with faithbased groups is what it means to be strengthening the foundation of our communities. We are doing it, and it is great to see. I am reminded by something alexis de tocqueville wrote two centuries ago, quote, the health of a Democratic Society may be measured by the quality of function performed by private citizens. Focusing on communities, implementing of our mental laws, and working with state and local governments to help communities help themselves, is the best way to improve the quality of the environment, both physical and even spiritual across our nation. It will take some time and every direction of not just human resources, but emotional ways,ces, because in some it is a heartbreaking to see communities with environmental pollution continue to suffer and feel abandoned while other places prosper. That if you want to know the proper role for the administered estate in the 21st century, this is it. Focusing epa towards communities in the coming years, our agency can change the future for People Living in this country who have been left behind simply for living in a polluted place. As i have said several times in the past, everyone deserves to have a Clean Environment regardless of what zip code you live in they live in. We will do work that has been neglected for years, and with a durability that can withstand future environment to challenges our nation will face, even those we cannot now imagine or anticipate. If we can do the work before us, and eliminate the agency backlogs at the results so many perverse governmental outcomes in this country, we can protect the places we love and bring back the places that have been hurt by pollution. Bring them all the way back to the places they were before the pollution began. Winky for the invitation to speak today with all of you, and thank you very much for being here and listening. Thank you, administrator wheeler. Seats,u take your six feet away from mine, i thought originally i would ask about some of the more current issues, issues of Climate Change and so on. Since you focused so much on super funds, we will start without. Aroundhese days, debates the epa focus on more issues but the superfund has been a problem for the nation for a long time. The superfund to remedy some of these harms the end what has it in such a difficult whyram to administer and was this administration so successful in turning it around . Admin. Wheeler i think we have been successful in turning it around because we are focusing on the results, not the activities of the program. The program celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. They have done some great things over the 40 years, but it has focused on measuring activities on a site by site basis is said the focusing on getting those sites cleaned up. After my nixon speech, i was attacked by some of the former , one of the career staffers, Betsy Sutherland said that the number of superfund constructions has declined under our administration. That is an activity that is not related to the result of getting the site cleaned up. The superfund construction, if i can exchange briefly. Adam sure. Admin. Wheeler when there is groundwater pollution and we install a pump and treat system at the site, so we install the equipment, as soon as the equipment is installed, that is a construction completion. Then the equipment operates for years, sometimes decades depending on the site. It is not until all the water has been treated that the site is cleaned up. So in the past, some of our critics were pointing to a meaningless statistic. Of course, all the pomp and treatments were installed years ago so the number of constructions would not necessarily go down. She actually made the case for me without knowing because she focused on outdated activity that is not a measure of the success of the program by cleaning up the results by getting the result of having the site cleaned up. Mym that is naturally to next question, how do you think about the relationship between the leadership at the epa and the Civil Servants over time. A few days ago it was constitution day, when your colleague in the cabinet, attorney general barr, dedicated an entire speech to the leadership between an agency and the career staff, the experts, and others within the agency. How do you think of that relationship between the politically Accountable Leadership who are appointed to the constitutional through the constitutional process, and those who serve in the agency often from one administration to the next to the next . Admin. Wheeler we have i believe some of the most dedicated federal employees at the epa. People come to work out theyd be a because they are concerned about the environment. All the accompanist once i mentioned today, we couldnt have done those without the dedication of our career employees. What i have seen is we have turned around the agency in terms of how we deal with permits. That is hard work. We implemented the lean Management System. Our middle managers were very excited. They now have the tools they can use in order to solve a problem and they are using it and it is effective. What i have seen in some of the recent maybe some of the retirements, is because people didnt want to change or embrace environmentalism from the 21st century, they are stuck in processes of the past. You can see that in the criticisms, for example, that superfund criticism, some of the people that left the agency are stuck in the mindset of measuring activities and not. Ocusing on results i think we have some very dedicated career employees at the agency who are really focusing on the results and jobs. Jobs in their adam before we get too far from the superfund conversation, we will talk about another recent crisis, the crisis in flint, michigan. Ago, itned a few years has taken a real effort by the problem. What lessons can be learned from that crisis both in terms of protecting the environment and then responding when accidents happen . Admin. Wheeler sure. Rule hadead and copper not been updated in 20 years. We proposed it last year, it will be finalized in the next few weeks, and it will really focus on getting the lead pipes replaced around the country. But it also has a few other important measures, including testing in all schools and day care centers. The flint, michigan problem the epa at the time, people at the agency were notified of the problem and didnt act quickly, and they needed to. We were faced with a very similar problem in new jersey and no work when they and new ark last year. We forced them to deliver bottled water to their residence until they could figure out the source of the problem and the remedy. They were hesitant to do that at first. We stepped in and said, no, we are not going to have Something Like flint, michigan happen again, we have to take this seriously. So we are. Adam working. Adam with Water Systems across the country to make sure Something Like that never happens again when you say working with Water Systems one thing the epa deals with as much if not more than other agencies is this complex mix of authorities of the federal government, state government, stateegislatures commissions, local districts and so on. How should we think about the federalism of the process, what is the proper role of the epa, states and localities . Admin. Wheeler i could talk for another hour on this topic. We do our best work in cooperation with the states and local governments. We see that in the superfund under epa, we organized regional offices and some of the states are now doing the same. The problem we have had, a problem at all levels of government, when bpa was created, we were very siloed. Air, water, chemical, land and hazardous waste. We havent done a good job of working across the offices. The plan that we released a year and a half ago his people from all of the offices. We have to figure out a way of doing that on a daily basis. Not just when something large occurs. We have to be more nimble. In terms of general permits, we have decreased to the permit backlog by 50 , but the thing is today almost all permits are done by the states. All but two states have them delegated to them, the permits. When we do a review on the state delegated programs, historically we have only looked at enforcement data. We will start looking at permit data. If they are stepping into the role of the federal government on the clean water and clean air side, we need to make sure that they are doing it in a thoughtful manner. You mentioned in your remarks, before the state can implement the law, they need to receive federal approval for the them for mentation plan. This has been a thorny problem for you is in years, a constant tension between federal government setting standards but leaving the state and figuring out how to attain those flexibilityth state the balance has probably gone in the wrong direction in recent with the epa micromanaging the states, as you mentioned. What has been the most difficult part in turning that around over the last few years, not just making the approval process more efficient and productive, but also just in approving it themselves and making sure the states have flexibility . The best example there is that the Obama Biden Administration issued 10 times the number as the four previous administrations combined. Of 2017 onarch average we have taken one and turned it back. We are reducing the number out there, which is what the federal government tells the state they must do. By we are converting them working with the states in a cooperative manner. It was supposed to be a last course desperate measure by the epa and it seemed to be the first action of the Obama Administration. And ie turned that around think that is the right approach for epa, to be working cooperatively with the states as they develop them before they are even submitted and work with them after they have been submitted to make sure that we can approve them. Down thet it water actual protection . Absolutely not. It is shown by the number of attainment designations we have done, reversed from nonattainment to attainment. It proves that the air has gotten better. As i said, the air pollution today, we have been monitoring it for the last 50 years. Its 7 cleaner than it was at the beginning of this administration. Reducedution has been 77 , seven percent under this administration. Lets sit back and initiate epa in our branch. , the executive orders number of executive orders focusing on the substance of the revelation, financial regulation, principal regulation and so on. The apa was among the number of agencies that were the subject of executive orders on Energy Independence on the waters of the United States, where President Trump signed orders directing agencies to start the process and really focus on the priorities of the administration. That is then followed by the rulemaking process. Now that the rules have been completed, the Clean Energy Rule, the water rule and so on, how has the whole process worked out in terms of the actual process, beginning with the white house and going through the agencies, how has that approved improved the process . For thiseler administration it was vital to have those orders. In large part because we didnt have Political Leadership for the first year. My predecessor, scott pruitt, was confirmed in march of 2017. The next Senate Confirmed person was not confirmed until november. It has never happened before. Senator schumer and Senate Democrats personally held up the senate nominees. We didnt have senior leadership. It was important to have executive orders from the white house to direct the staff that was at the epa to work on the issues and, for example, start working on potus. We didnt have Senate Confirmed people because Senate Democrats held up the nominees. What happens when an agency lacks a top tier of Senate Confirmed officials . Admin wheeler we usually dont see a lot of movement. We didnt get the Senate Confirmed head of the Enforcement Office until december of 20. Our enforcement numbers drop that year. I can show you the schumer enforcement numbers. We got the head confirmed that december and we started in 2018. The numbers went up and we started hiring more criminal enforcement agents. That went up. We have accomplished a lot, in fact. More than the Obama Administration on civil and criminal enforcement powers. Dwas not counting the settlement, the first year of the administration. And i didnt count the daimler settlement last week, because the court hasnt finalized that. Once its finalized, though, we will have collected twice as is the enforcement finds Obama Biden Administration did in their first four years. The rules we just inuded to, the climate rules the d. C. Circuit judge it will be argued in october. The navigable waters rule, thats i think out west. In a nutshell, how would you describe what has been achieved and why should the court sustain them . Admin wheeler we replace the Clean Power Plan and i get criticized for that a lot, but room of the Supreme Court issued a stay on it. It never took effect. Its the first time they ever did that for environmental regulation. I look at that is the Supreme Court saying that the Obama Administration went outside the bounds of the Clean Air Act. At the beginning of this administration we took a look at what the Clean Air Act said and we formulated the ace rule that follows the law and i believe will be upheld by the d. C. Circuit judge and this Supreme Court if it goes to the Supreme Court. On the waterside, s is the Obama Administration issued the rule, it was stayed in over half the states. It didnt take effect, either. Ruleeplacement for the fell to the courts. Our rule is the law of the land and what we did is something that i like to do, i like to joke, its apparently unique, we took a hard look at the court cases and we looked at a rule to follow the law. For the rule i believe will be upheld by the court. Adam a couple of more minutes of questions before we go to audience questions. If the audience would like to send in questions, they can do it on twitter or by email. About this day issued by the court for the Clean Power Plan, i think its very easy to draw a line to that moment from an earlier moment at the epa, with all due respect, i dont think it was one of the greatest moments, when they lost in the Supreme Court in a case called michigan versus the epa, they lost having gone past the limits of the statute. Someone there said that even though we lost the case, the industry has fully complied with the rule, so we didnt lose anything at all. I think it was a blow to the credibility of the epa at the time. Reminds us of this delicate balance at the epa, when it issues a rule or promulgates standards, you want to begin with compliance but we have a whole process after that, often for judicial review and someone. Whats the right way to do this . Whats the right way for the agency to make rules and try to start ushering the industry towards compliance, recognizing the entire rule of law process you follows . Admin wheeler are absolutely correct. I set it at the time, i was in the private sector and i wrote a piece on it, i felt that Justice Scalia was not writing for that case, he was writing for the case they were going to get on a Clean Power Plant. Some of the comments that he made in his opinion. And that was wrong. It was wrong of the epa. At the time, i think you are referring to the match rule. At the time, you know, the administrators said, you are exactly right, it was one of the administrators who said that the industry has already complied with it, so it doesnt really matter and i think that infuriated the Supreme Court and its why they stayed soup the Clean Power Plant. I know that people worked on the Clean Power Plant on the outside who felt that it was, because it went outside the fence line, which the agency had never done, they knew it was going to get overturned, but they were hoping that the Utility Industry would comply before the Supreme Court overturned it. Thats not the way that regulatory agencies should operate. I think thats out of the bounds. Congress sets the laws. Enforceto, we have to them and enact them. For anyppropriate Regulatory Agency to knowingly go beyond what the law states and epa certainly did that in a few cases. Adam maybe we will end this part of the conversation on this, then. On this theme. The industry the epa regulates are often among the most capitalintensive in the country. Longtermto make plans, strategic deployment, investment of capital and other resources. Choices that are going to have consequences for many, many years. Often times planning a horizon well beyond four years or eight years. So regulatory uncertainty is an inevitable problem. How can we minimize this problem of regulatory uncertainty . We have to be more open with how our regulations are developed and some of what we are discussing today includes science transparency, costbenefit regulation, the fact that we are putting all guidance documents out on a searchable database, it should provide more transparency and openness not just for the regulated industry but for the environmental groups and private citizens around the country. By having that transparency. I started my career at epa back in the early 90s, working on the community right to know act. I fundamentally believe the community has a right to know the basis for our regulations, which is why we are moving forward on all the reforms because i think if we tell the public the kinds of studies we are using and heres the data behind them, a regulations will be better accepted and it will help to provide more certainty to the community through the process, if we are more upfront with how we make decisions and put it into our rulings. Adam maybe we will talk about the scientific transparency rule for a moment. I like the concept of it. I have spoken out in favor of it. Admin wheeler thank you. Adam youre welcome. But i always have to make the concession that i think its inevitable, just the mere fact of creating a rule that has standards for what the Scientific Study canon cant be used for and putting limits on studies that may well be valid science but are publicly available, there is a coston that. The benefit is transparency and public accountability, but it is going to have some impact, surely, on the way that science is produced, disseminated, and used in government. How can we make sure that we have transparent science that is still the best science . Well, we did do a supplemental proposal on this to studyy, if a scientific is important and needs to be used for regulation, we can waive the Transparency Part of that study. Again, i believe that the majority of people who are opposed to this would prefer that decisions be made in a proverbial smokefilled back room. They dont want the agency to be upfront with how they make decisions, they would prefer that they could do it behind closed doors about the regulation and the standard. I fundamentally believe we need to explain the standards. Audience questions, then, this one has to do with the widely discussed Green New Deal. Achieve inthe epa to the federal government in general to reach goals of zero gas. How should we think about that kind of reform and how does it stack up against what the epa has accomplished . Of course, the devil is in the details. There are several versions of the Green New Deal out there. You know, one of the things they called for is the end of the internal Combustion Engine by 2035. Thats not feasible. Wefar as the zero omissions, dont have the Battery Storage technology to get to that point. A lot of people dont realize that there are negative impacts to the environment of every Single Energy source. The only one i cant figure out a negative impact to would be geothermal and im sure if it was more widely used, there might be a negative impact. But there are negative environmental impacts to solar and we never focus on that. We all focus on the rare earth metals that go into producing renewable energy. We dont focus on the disposal of the solar panels at the end of their Life Expectancy and the disposal of the wind turbines. We also dont focus on the impact on birds from the turbines. Im not saying that we should use wind and solar. Im just saying that every Single Energy source has a negative consequence and on the renewable side, we dont talk about that its glossed over. We should be opening up the positives and negatives of all Energy Sources. You mentioned battery technology. Its true they are not perfect yet, but they are getting better. 5 admin wheeler they are, and they need to get even better. Adam all of these technologies are improving, Like Technology often does. Epas the right role in the in helping to advance the future without dictating the future . I remember a few years ago a former official that used to regulate the automobile, helped the epa with regulating automobiles, published a memoir titled driving the future, which i thought got it totally backwards. Government doesnt drive the future. But what role does government have in helping to move towards the future . Adam admin wheeler admin wheeler admin wheeler we need to Fund Research to make the energy more efficient, Fund Research on solar panels and coal technologies, such as Carbon Capture and sequestration. Its an appropriate role to help spur that innovation in the marketplace. I dont believe our regulations should pick winners and losers between types. Its one big problem with the obama cafe standards. If you were to get the Emissions Reductions they called for, you would have to have a 50 electric vehicle fleet by 2025 and thats not going to happen. The only way that Auto Companies could comply was by cashing in credits unrelated to vehicle miles or paying large fines. The fines were expected to be 1 billion by 2025, which would have been passed on to all of the consumers on the price of a new car. Our next question comes from oliver, a writer for the guardian, who says Climate Change has been doubled in the areas of wildfire since the 1980s and given the huge fires we are seeing out west, you can as a glowingsmoke health threat. Absolutely. R we have developed an app that you can download called smoke sense that will give updates about where you live and whether or not it is safe to go outside with the particulate matters from the fires. Absolutely its a huge health issue in terms of particulate matter. I should have started with the loss of life from the fires. We are all very concerned about the loss of life emergency responders. As well as the impact of water. A few years back they had water impacts for years afterwards its mostly caused by poor Forest Management and not Climate Change. Adam on that point, it seems like a difficult problem to untangle. The reporter mentions the climate aspect of this. There is the private sector that is responsible for maintaining Energy Infrastructure in the states and what should they be responsible for in keeping the area around clear . Whats the responsibility of the Public Sector and so on . How does the epa and the federal government as a whole even begin to grapple with an issue like that that involves so many different private and state actors . Admin wheeler thats mostly outside the jurisdiction of the epa. A huge right, its problem. Environmentalists blocked our legislation that would have allowed utilities to go in and clean out the dead debris near the lines. They were not able to do that. Property,y owned the if the lines crossed federal property they didnt have the authority because of liability reasons. Its a huge problem that its outside their jurisdiction and it is something as a government that we need to focus on. Another question, whats the current status of the waters of the United States rule and how has it evolved . In my law class i teach that so many of our clean water act cases grapple with what is navigable water. What is the water of the United States. Why has that been such a difficult problem for the epa and army corps of engineers to settle through the rulemaking through judicial review and why will this time be any different . I think at this time will be different. If you go back to the clean air clean water act of the 1970s, congress and bishop focusing on ships and boats on waterways and it has been expanded over the years through Supreme Court cases to include adjacent wetlands. Our definition, i believe, follows those Supreme Court cases and i think it will be upheld. It has already passed the first test. Thehis point we are in middle of writing the guidance documents for the army corps inspectors around the country. Its very important that every inspector follow the law in the exact same way. I saw this when i was in private practice, army corps inspectors that interpreted the regulations the way they wanted to on a casebycase basis. We wrote the new waters of the so that thed act Property Owner should be able to stand on his or her own property and tell for themselves if their waterfalls on the definition. We include what is and what is not water of the u. S. , by definition. Adam it seems to me that so much of the energy channeled into giving the epa and the army corps navigable waters over the years, it was wellintentioned and often responsive responsive to improving the understanding of how water flows and is connected. If only it had been channeled into the legislative process, congress could have updated these standards. My editorial comment, it seems to me that the more the agencys work within the mandate and justify why they are limited by the mandates, the more energy you would hope would be channeled into a legislative process. Admin wheeler i will let you make the editorial comment. With the Supreme Court decisions , whats written in the clean water act has not kept up with the times. This audience question comes from chris barnard. He writes how can we make sure we have a steady supply of radical minerals in the United States without being reliant on countries like china . What is your view on domestic drilling . He means domestic mining. So, this goes to a problem that you identified a moment ago, the more that we rely on new technologies, the more we become reliant on china and a few other countries unless we are able to find technologies that can be based on more diverse and domestic sets of resources. Adam your pad admin wheeler your pad has Rare Earth Minerals in it. She read a question to me from her iphone and after i entered out that if she was really that concerned about the environment, she might want to get rid of her iphone. We need them in we should be mining them here in the United States because we mine in a more environment more environmentally protective manner. The other countries doing this to not follow environmental guidelines and standards that we have in place in the United States. Really, there is a nimby attitude when it comes to extraction and mining in the u. S. That is i think one of the worst decisions that we can make as we do it in a much cleaner fashion. Adam adding to his question, the more i rely on this tablet, the more energy i use. The more software its the worlds, the more we rely on electronics increasing not just Greenhouse Gas emissions but our Energy Infrastructure, our outdated power grid. What role is the epa playing in helping to make sure that our Energy Infrastructure is modern and efficient . Thatsheeler again, mostly outside our jurisdiction, but we do have a responsibility to make sure that all regulations across the board dont pick winners and losers on Energy Sources and we need to make sure they are updated. You know . Times ran a hit piece on the administrations and had over 100 rollbacks of environmental regulations. Of they only reported half the equation. As a mathematician, you have to have both sides. They didnt report that in each case we replaced the regulations with more updated regulations based on the science today. When we replace some of the 10, 20, 30,that are 40 years old, science has changed a lot and we need to go back to update the regulations and its one of the things we have been focusing on. Theres a president ial election coming up. Whether your time ends in january or sometime long after that, what do you want your legacy to be as leader of the epa . Adam when i took over i said i wanted to leave it stronger admin wheeler what i took over a set i wanted to leave it stronger than i found it. The president has asked me to plan for a second term. I laid it out in my nixon speech and i certainly intend to be here to implement that for the next few years. But the agency, on every single indicator, we have improved. Making us more nimble and efficient, we have improved. As far as fulfilling the goal of the president when he asked me to continue to clean up the air in the water and deregulate to help create more jobs, we have done that as well. We have proven we can do both at the same time. Adam administrator, thanks for joining us. I want to thank the audience, our sparse audience here, and mostly at home for joining us today. Please stay tuned to our website for future events online. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] President Trump said that he will be naming his Supreme Court pick this friday. He says he has narrowed it down to four or five women for the seat. Republican senators will return to capitol hill this afternoon, discussing how to move forward and whether to have a Supreme Court nominee vote before the election. This evening Georgetown University law school will hold a remembrance ceremony for late Justice Ginsburg and in attendance will be some of her late some of her biographers and friends. You can join us here on cspan or listen live here on the free cspan radio app. In the meantime, both chambers of Commerce Congress are in session this week. The house is back at noon to debate 41 bills. Also, negotiations continue on a temporary spending measure and a september 30 deadline for when current funding expires. Later in the week, energy, clean air, and preventing forced labor. The Senate Returns for its first session since the death of ruth bader ginsburg. In addition to expected floor tributes, work is expected on judicial nominations. Watch the senate live starting at 3 p. M. Eastern on cspan two you are watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government, created by Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you by your Cable Television provider. Center is here with us this morning, to talk about the latino vote in campaign 2020. He is the director of global migration and Democracy Research at the pew research center
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