Law, government power and cutvidual ready, and also individual liberty, and also conservation. To discuss, i am pleased to be joined by administrator wheeler. We will offer some opening remarks and then i will have some questions. Too, as youwest and can see on our event page and our youtube page. Ask questions on twitter at hashtag aeicleanairandwater. First, some opening remarks. Administrator wheeler, welcome. Admin. Wheeler thank you, adam, for that great introduction. I fort to thank ae inviting me to be here today. Earlier this month, i provided reflections on the last 50 years of the Environmental Protection agency and laid out our plan for its future at the nixon library. Today, i would like to explain, based on what we have accomplished over the past four 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. Since 2017, air pollution in this country has fallen 7 . Last year, epa delisted 27 superfund sites, the most in a single year since 2001, and we will delist 27 more sites this year. Epa has helped finance more than 40 billion dollars in clean Water Infrastructure, supporting 7,100 high priority projects and 27,000 jobs during President Trumps first term. The trump epa has recovered more criminal and Civil Penalties for enforcement in our first term them the Obamabiden Administration did in their first term. These successes are big deal, and great news in terms of Americas Health and wellbeing. But like most great news, you rarely read about it in newspapers or watch it on news channels. In fact, the news media purposely underreports any good news from this administration. Just last week we announced the second largest civil action under the Clean Air Act. The Trump Administration has now collected more in civil and criminal penalties than the Obamabiden Administration did in its first term, but no press outlets reported this fact, because it doesnt fit the press narrative. A big deal was made when President Trump left the paris climate accords, which would have treated the u. S. Economy unfairly. Yet, the u. S. Has seen a 15 reduction in energyrelated Carbon Dioxide emissions since 2005. During this time, the u. S. Cut its Greenhouse Gas emissions, measured in tons, more than britain, france, germany, italy and canada combined. China, meanwhile, has increased their emissions by over 50 since 2005. Just at epa, the Trump Administration in its first term has taken four concrete actions to reduce Greenhouse Gases. First, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, or ace rule, which will cut overall Carbon Emissions from the u. S. Power sector by 34 from 2005 levels by 2030. Second, our safe vehicles rule will reduce emissions compared to the Previous Administrations standards, which allowed companies to comply through purchasing credits related to actions that didnt really impact emissions. Or by paying fines. We proposed in your role to reduce emissions from aircraft that represents the first time the u. S. Has ever adopted emission standards for aviation. New then your roles rules making it easier and less expensive for Natural Gas Companies to capture fugitive methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure. As john adams once said, facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. Its unfortunate, but there is a lot of evidence that during the Previous Administration especially in its second term an overweening focus on Climate Change took the form of virtuesignaling in foreign capitals. This behavior came at the expense of running the agency and ensuring a better environment for all americans. Aside from their attempt at the waters of the United States rule, they almost solely focused on Climate Change at the expense of other environmental indicators. Let me explain. We have done more in the first four years of the Trump Administration to improve the environment than probably any administration except perhaps during the very first years of epa. I would argue that the Trump Administration has epitomized and carried out, more than any other administration, the core mission of the epa, which is to protect human health and the environment. We have finalized at least 8 major rulemakings before the end of this term the navigable waters rule, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, the safe rule, the first 10 tsca assessments, the ccr and elg rules, the lead and copper rule, the ozone naaqs, and pm naaqs will all be finalized by the end of this year. All of these regulations will improve the environment. At the same time, we inherited the largest backlog of unfinished Agency Business in our history. During the final four years of the Obama Administration, an enormous backlog of unprocessed permits of all kinds was built up. For example, at the beginning of the administration, we inherited a backlog of 700 state implementation plans, also known as sips, under the Clean Air Act. We have taken action on over 500 of these submittals. States and cities need sips approved so they can focus on cleaning up their environment. When sips languish at epa for approval, environmental work may not be getting done, and approval of sips can help reduce air pollution. When cities and counties fall out of attainment, companies t or move their facilities to other places rather than wait for air quality levels to improve. One of the main causes of urban decline in places like detroit, chicago and cleveland in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s was the inability of businesses to get new permits. The backlog of sips at the agency has been one of the indivisible but real causes of environmental injustice in this country over the past decades. Any location that was out of air attainment could not make it back into attainment unless sips were first processed and then a plan carried out. Many of these backlogged plans sat for years, in limbo, neither approved nor rejected for a variety of reasons including , because they are deficient and could not be approved. But instead of approving these plans or disapproving them and developing new ones, prior administrations just left them to sit, sometimes for decades. We discovered applications that were filed in the 1990s and unprocessed, in places like the San Joaquin Valley in california, and in arizona. In 2018 we approved a sip that was filed by wyoming in 1987, and we discovered an unprocessed sip for nevada from october 1975, 45 years ago. Concerning water pollution, the backlog of National Pollutant discharge elimination system, or npdes permits, which regulates point sources of pollution in u. S. Waters, has been reduced 32 from 2017. Regarding superfund cleanups, we see a similar story. Too Many Americans have lived near superfund sites for too long. Thankfully, cleaning up these sites has been a major focus of the Trump Administration. In President Trumps first three years in office, we completed full or partial deletion of 55 sites from the npl, including 27 last year, the most in a year since 2001. Of the 27 sites deleted last year 14 sites had been on the National Priority list since the 1980s. Seven since the we have 1990s. Maintained last years accelerated pace and will have completed the deletion process for another 27 full or partial sites by the end of this fiscal year. This will bring the total number of full or partial deletions in President Trumps first term to at least 82 sites. This is equal to the 8year total of the prior administration. So it is worth repeating the Trump Administration in its first four years has matched the amount of superfund sites delisted by the Obamabiden Administration in its eight years in office. And many of the sites delisted this year had been on the npl for more than 30 years. A full or partial deletion of a site tells local communities and the broader public that important work has been done and the site, if appropriate, is eligible for brownfields 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 sites epa has responsibility for are 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 polluted sites quickly and return them to the surrounding communities for an improved use, epa is strengthening our country where it needs to be strongest, that our foundation. At our foundation. There are many other examples of our working down of this backlog. The pfas family of chemicals have been around since at least the 1950s, and no administration ever took them long. In 2019, we took the historic step of creating a pfas action plan that uses all our Program Offices to deal with this emerging chemical of concern. The action plan outlines more than 20 key focus areas that include both short and longterm goals, and it is the agencys first multiprogram, National Research and Risk Communication plan. Concerning lead and copper pipes, and Obamabiden Administration claimed to have worked on it for eight years with nothing to show. They even had a wakeup call in flint, michigan in 2014 but still did nothing. We will finalize our lead and copper rule in the next several weeks which, for the first time ever, will call for the testing of lead in all schools and daycare centers. We delivered a final rule in april 2019 strengthening asbestos regulation for the first time in over 30 years. This rule closed a dangerous loophole that could have allowed contaminated floor tiles, building materials, and insulation to return to the u. S. Marketplace without epa review. We have completely eliminated the backlog of epa actions on the states list of impaired waters, marking the first time in a decade that this backlog has been eliminated. Since january of 2017, the epa has approved more than 7,000 tmdls or total maximum daily load plans, to restore polluted waters. A 25 increase from the preceding three and a half years. The backlog of actions on state priority tmdls has fallen dramatically from over 100 in to just a single state priority 2017, tmdl in july of this year. Thats more than a 99 decrease to the backlog. And were doing so while approving a higher percentage of state Water Quality standards than at any point during the last administration. Yet, despite our significant efforts to update water standards, some states are actively trying to derail one of the nations most successful watershed partnerships by bringing a frivolous and divisive lawsuit over the Chesapeake Bay tmdls. The historic progress in restoring the Chesapeake Bay in the past decade is evidence of how strong partnerships with states can create better environmental outcomes. So, its unfortunate that some downstream states choose politics over progress in an Election Year and sued epa over a position developed by the Obama Administration a few years ago position that i agree with. , a on a more positive note, we are supporting American Energy by reducing the underground injection control, or uic class 2 permit backlog by 70 from 2018. We cut the length of time to process a uic class 2 permit to less than 150 days, down from an 500 days in the past. In january of 2017, the backlog of new chemicals under review for greater than 90 days had grown to over 500. As of today, the number of chemicals epa has under review for over 90 days is less than 200, a 60 decrease, and the agency has completed over 2,900 new chemical submissions since the beginning of this administration. And when it comes to enforcement, we have reversed the decline in the epa criminal program that began in 2011 by bringing on new agents. In 2019, the number of new criminal case openings increased new criminal cases opened increased for the First Time Since 2013, with a 48 increase since 2017 in the number of environmental criminal cases opened by the epa. It turns out delivering for American Communities also means there are things we are not doing. We are not weaponizing enforcement or using it for social engineering. We are simply using our enforcement and compliance tools to solve environmental problems like nonattainment, protect drinking water, reduce lead exposure, and revitalize communities. And these accomplishments cannot have happened without the hard work of our career employees. By implementing the lean Management System across the agency in 2017, we freed up many of the bureaucratic obstacles that have plagued this 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 some in the press on our Environmental Justice record. The Trump Administration has done more to elevate Environmental Justice than any president since george h. W. Bush created the program. First, we elevated Environmental Justice out of the Enforcement Office, and into the administrators office. Being stuck in enforcement relegated Environmental Justice to be considered after the fact, instead of at the beginning of our policies and rulemakings. Second, the Opportunity Zone tax credits created by the trump tax reform of 2017 has done more to help Environmental Justice communities with their environmental problems than all the ej grants of the past many years. Third, americas Water Infrastructure act, which was signed into law by President Trump in 2018, codified the office of Environmental Justice within epa for the first time. We are incorporating Environmental Justice through our Program Offices and improving ej communities at a pace not seen before. Just look at our superfund sites. In north birmingham, alabama, the community that is the site of the infamous bombing in 1963 that killed four girls attending the 16th street baptist church, we have cleaned up 480 properties and removed more than 60,000 tons of soil contaminated with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals. At the uss lead site in east chicago, indiana, were cleaning 671e have cleaned up Residential Properties and removed contaminated soil from about 95 of the calumet neighborhood, allowing the city to redevelop vacant lots. At the Southside Chattanooga lead site in chattanooga, tennessee, weve cleaned up lead contamination in eight historically black, lowincome residential neighborhoods, parks, schools, playgrounds, and daycares and added the site to , the National Priorities list. In pueblo, colorados lowincome bessemer neighborhood, epa accelerated the cleanup of residential and commercial 1900 properties polluted with lead and arsenic by a smelter which closed almost a century ago. The decision accelerated the cleanups completion by almost seven years. And in atlanta, georgia, in only two short years since a doctoral student raised awareness of lead levels in the citys westside neighborhoods, epa has already removed contaminated soil from over 140 properties. When i visited the site last year, i got to see firsthand the work epa was doing to get sampling and cleanup underway to protect the health and safety of those living in the English Avenue and vine city communities, which are among the citys poorest. On water with Environmental Justice, our region 2 office worked to help over 200 of 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. And with the lead and copper rule, we focused our attention on ways to ensure the worst contaminated pipes arent the last miles replaced in the next 30 years. Regarding air quality, as we have seen moving locations from , nonattainment to attainment status predominately helps inner cities, which is why it is so frustrating to see you this administrations not focus on this. Since 2017 weve taken action on over 1,200 sips, both new and backlogged. We have redesignated 54 nonattainment areas to attainment during this time and we believe another 25 areas can be redesignated by 2022. Areas that have regained air attainment include indianapolis, which reentered attainment for sulfur dioxide in may of this year, chicago and tampa regained attainment for lead in 2018, and st. Louis and cleveland for particulate matter in 2019. Meeting these standards protects people from asthma, heart and lung disease, heart attacks, behavior and learning problems and a whole host of other health , issues. Its my belief that if we want to help communities in the future, we need to recognize where we made mistakes in the past. It goes without saying that neglect is a form of harm, and its 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 at epa in the coming years is a communitydriven environmentalism that promotes community revitalization. This would do more for Environmental Justice than all the rhetoric in political campaigns. What we have in the United States in terms of the environment is unique, and i want to conserve it for future generations. But i also want more recognition and attention put toward areas in the country that still need our help 50 years after the epas creation. Our environment in the United States 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 we are going as a nation regarding Environmental Protection. I have a clear vision for epa. It involves focusing on communities and citizens here in the United States. For its 50th Anniversary Commemoration this year, epa has selected a very good slogan, progress for a stronger future here just last week i was in st. Louis, talking with faith leaders and learning about some of the environmental training our region 7 office is doing with religious organizations in missouri. The pandemic has hurt church finances like it has everywhere else, and the ability to develop better environmental behaviors, energy saving, and moneysaving 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, and im reminded by something alexis de tocqueville wrote after visiting america almost two centuries ago. Quote the health of a , Democratic Society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens. Focusing on communities, the vital work of implementing environmental laws and working with states 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. This will take some time. It is a redirection of not just human resources, but our because inesources, some ways, it is heartbreaking to see these communities with environmental pollution continue to suffer and to feel abandoned while other places prosper. But if you want to know the proper role for the Administrative State in the 21st century, this is it. I believe that by focusing epa toward 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 polluted places. As ive said several times in the past, everyone deserves to have a Clean Environment regardless of what zip code they live in. We will do work that has been neglected for years, and we will do it with a durability that can withstand the future environmental challenges our nation will face, even those we cannot now imagine or anticipate. ,f we can do the work before us eliminate the agency backlogs that are at the root of so many perverse environmental outcomes in this country come that 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. I want to thank you for the invitation to you today with all of you, and thank you very much for being here and listening in. Adam thank you, administrator wheeler. While you take your seat, six i thoughtfrom mine, originally that i would ask about some of the more current issues. Issues of more recent vintage, Climate Change and so on. Since you focused so much on super funds, maybe well start with that. Seems these days debates around the epa focus on more issues but the superfund has been a problem for the nation for a long time. The administration has super funds to remedy some of these harms. White has it been such a difficult program to administer and why 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 Actually is celebrating 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 instead of focusing on getting those sites cleaned up. After my nixon speech, i was attacked by some of the former epa staff. Led by some of the former political people, one of the career staff 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 just explain 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. So 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 pump and treat most of them 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 an outdated activity that is not a measure of the success of the program by cleaning up, but the results of getting the sites cleaned up. Adam you mentioned criticism from former epa staff. That leads naturally to my 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, and one of your colleagues in the cabinet attorney general barr, dedicated , an entire speech to the thinking through their relationship between the leadership of an agency and the career staff experts, and others , within the agency. How do you think of that relationship between the politically Accountable Leadership who are appointed 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 at the epa because they are concerned about the environment. All the accomplishments that 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. What we did is we implemented the lean Management System. Our middle managers were very excited about that. They now have a tool that 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. The didnt want to embrace environmentalism for the 21st century, they are stuck in processes of the past. You can see that in some of the criticisms again, that superfund criticism, some of the people that left the agency are stuck in the mindset of measuring activities and not focusing on results. And i think we have some very dedicated career employees at the agency who are really now focusing on the results in their jobs. Adam before we get too far from the superfund conversation, we will talk about another recent crisis, the crisis in flint, michigan. It happened a few years ago, it has taken a real effort by the Trump Administration to follow this up and actually deal with 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. So, the lead and copper rule had not been updated in 20 years. And we are going to updated 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 very important measures, including testing in all schools and day care centers. The flint, michigan problem the , you know, the epa at the time, people at the agency were notified of the problem and didnt act quickly, and they needed to. When we were faced with a very similar problem in new jersey, ark, when they had lead in their pipes last year, we forced them to deliver bottled water to their residents 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 working with Water Systems across the country to make sure Something Like that never happens again. Adam when you say working with Water Systems, one thing the epa deals with as much as if not more than other agencies is this complex mix of authorities of the federal government, State Governments state legislatures, state commissions, local districts and so on. How should we think about the federalism of this whole process . What is the proper role of the epa, states and localities . Admin. Wheeler i could talk for another hour on this topic. I will try to keep it short. We do our best work when you are working in cooperation with the states and local governments. We see that in the Superfund Program and we see that in the air program. Under epa, we reorganized our regional offices to mirror headquarters. Some of the states are now doing the same. Have had, andm we this is a problem at all levels of government, with the ep it was created, we were very siloed in our approach. We had an air office, a water office, Chemical Office land and , hazardous waste. We havent done a good job of working across the offices. Our pfas action plan that we released a year and a half ago has people from all the offices. We have to figure out a way of doing that on a daily basis. Not just when a large accident lak like the fossil 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. States do 96 percent to 97 of all the water permits. We do the air permits. When we do a review on statedelegated programs historically we have only looked , at enforcement data. Starting next year, we will start looking at their permitting data because if they are stepping into the role of the federal government on the clean water and clean air side and issuing their permits in our shoes, we need to make sure that they are doing it in a betterful manner and than what they have been able to accomplish in the past. Adam as you mentioned in your remarks, before the state can implementing the law in the shoes of the epa, they need to receive federal approval for the them for mentation plan. This has been a thorny problem for you for years, and constant tension between federal government setting standards but leaving the state and figuring out how best to attain those with state flexibility. In recent years, i think the balance has gone in the wrong direction. To often, the epa really trying to micromanage the states. In addition to the problems with the backlog of the sips, 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 the s ips themselves, and making sure the states have flexibility . Admin wheeler the best example the Obamabiden Administration issued 10 times ps as ther of si Previous Administrations four combined. So, since march of 2017 on average we have taken one and turned it back into a sips. So we are reducing the number of sips out there, which is when the federal government tells the state, you must do this. So, we are converting them by working with the states in a cooperative manner. That is what the Clean Air Act envisioned. Lastwas meant to be their course, desperate measure by the epa and that seems to be the last action by the Obama Administration. They just sat on the sips. We have turned that around and i 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. Adam it doesnt water down the actual protection the people are getting . Admin. Wheeler absolutely not. It is shown by the number of attainment designations we have done in reversing them from nonattainment to attainment. It proves that the air has gotten better. The epa said, the way has been monitoring air pollution for the last 50 years, it is 7 cleaner than it was at the beginning of this administration. Since the epa was founded 50 years ago, air pollution has been reduced 77 , again, 7 under this administration. A step back and situate the epa in our constitutional structure, within the executive branch. Agencies like the epa have long operated under executive orders, but this administration began with a number of executive orders focused on the substance of regulation, financial regulation, principles of financial regulation, and so on. But the epa was among a number of agencies subject to executive orders on energy independence, on the waters of the United States rule, where President Trump signed orders directing agencies to start a process and really to focus on the priorities of the administration. So that then is followed by the rulemaking process. Now a number of those rows have been completed, like the clean energy rule, the navigable waters rule, and so on. How has that process worked out in terms of the beginning of the white house and then going through the agencies, how has that improved the process . Admin wheeler for this administration, it was vital in those first year because in large part, we didnt have the Political Leadership at the epa for the first year. My predecessor, scott pruitt was confirmed in march of 2017. The next senateconfirmed person was not confirmed until it has november. Never happened before. Senator schumer and Senate Democrats personally held up nominees for leadership. We didnt have that senior leadership. So it was very important to have executive orders from the white house to direct the staff that was at the epa to work on the issues. It was important to have those executive orders in place because we didnt have senateconfirmed people to cause the Senate Democrats held up our nominees. Adam what happens when an agency lacks that top of senateconfirmed officials . Admin. Wheeler we usually dont see a lot of movement in those offices when you dont have a person. Onfirmed we didnt have our senateconfirmed head of Enforcement Office until 2017. Er of i refer to 2017 because unfortunately our numbers drop that year. We didnt have leadership. I considered those of the enforcement numbers. When we started in 2018, our enforcement numbers went up. We started hiring more criminal enforcement agents. So we have accomplished a lot. Than thei say more Obamabiden Administration on civil and criminal Enforcement Powers collected, i was not counting the volkswagen settlement, which was the first year of our administration. Most of that work took place in the Obama Administration. And i didnt count the daimler settlement next week, because the court has not finalized that. Once its finalized, though, we will have collected twice as finesn enforcement as the obamaguide and administration did in their first four years. Adam about the rules we just alluded to, the climate rules in will. C. Circuit judge it be argued in october. The navigable waters rule, that is i think out west. In a nutshell, how would you describe what has been achieved rules, andr how should the court sustained them . Admin wheeler we replace the Clean Power Plan and i get criticized for that a lot, but remember, the Supreme Court issued a stay on the clean water plan. It never took effect. Its the first time they ever did that for environmental regulation. I look at that as the Supreme Court saying that the Obama Administration went outside the bounds of the Clean Air Act. So we looked at what the clean said and read from related the ace rule that follows the law and i believe will be upheld by end the Supreme Court, if it goes to the Supreme Court. Side, as soon as the Obama Administration issued their water rule, it was stated in over half the states and didnt take effect either. The lawsuit, our replacement for the role fell to the courts. So what we did for our navigable waters protection rule is something that i like to joke is unique, we took a hard look at we clean water act and ,ooked at Supreme Court cases and we follow the law. I believe our replacement for the waters rule will be upheld by the Supreme Court. Adam a couple of minutes of questions before we go to our audience questions. I would like to remind her audience, if they would like to send questions, they can do it to elater, or by email ine. Allen aei. Org. It is very easy to draw a line from that moment to the earlier moment at the epa, i dont think it was one of the epas greatest moments, when the epa lost in the Supreme Court in a case called michigan versus the epa, to do with stationary sources. The ep a lost. The role had gone past the limits of statute. Someone at the epa said, even though we lost the case, the industry has fully complied with loseule so we didnt anything at all. I think that was a real blow to the epas credibility at the time. I think that was why the Supreme Court may have been skeptical. It also 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 oftentimes for judicial review and so on. What is the right way for the agency to make rules and to try to start ushering the industry towards compliance, but recognizing there is a whole rule of law process that follows . Admin. Wheeler you are absolutely correct. That Supreme Court decision, i said 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 that they were going to get on the Clean Power Plant. Some of the comments he made in his opinion. That was wrong. It was wrong of the epa. At the time, i think you are referring to the match role. Rule. At the time, the epa administrator it was actually the administrator who said the industry has already complied with it, so the Court Decision doesnt really matter. I think that infuriated the Supreme Court and why they plant. The clean power i know there are people who worked on the Clean Power Plant, and i heard this went on the outside, who thought that the Clean Power Plant because it , went outside the fence line, which the agency had never done, regulatory the way operations operate. Congress sets the laws. Them ando enforce enact them. Anys inappropriate for Regulatory Agency to go beyond what the law states. The epa certainly did that in some cases. Theme, theated industries that the epa regulates are often a most among the most capital intensive ones in the country. Make admissions need to longterm plans, choices that will have consequences for many years. A planning arising arising well beyond eight years. This is an inevitable problem. How can we minimize this problem of regulatory uncertainty . Admin. Wheeler we have to be more open with how our regulations are developed. Some of the reforms we are doing include our science transparency regulation. The fact that were are putting all of our guidance documents out on a searchable database, this should provide more transparency. This should open up to the private citizens around the country. By having that transparency. Epaarted my career at the back in the 90s. I fundamentally believe that the public has a right to know what the basis is for our regulations. That is why we are moving forward on all those reformers. I believe that if we tell the public what scientific studies we are using and here is the data in the studies, our regulations will be better accepted. I think that will provide more certainty to our process if we are more upfront. Maybe we will talk about the scientific transparency row. I like the concept of it, i spoke out in favor of it. I have spoken out in favor of the proposal. I always have to make a concession that i think is inevitable. The mere fact of creating a row that has standards for what scientific studies can and cant use. They are putting on limits putting limits on studies that are publicly available. The benefit is transparency, public accountability. This comes with the way that the scientist produced. How can we ensure that we have transparent science . We did a supplemental proposal on this to better clarify this. The the administrator if Scientific Study is important and needs to be used, we can wait for the Transparency Part of that. I believe the majority of people who are opposed to this would prefer that decisions be made in a smokefilled back room. They dont want the agency to be upfront with how we make our decisions. They would prefer to make decisions behind closed doors. I believe we need to explain the basis behind the standards. We will have some audience questions then. This has to do with the widely discussed three new deal. There has been a lot of public debate on the discussions. To achieveon the epa federal goals of Greenhouse Gas emissions. How should we think about calls for that kind of reform . How do we stack up against with epa has accomplished . There are a couple different versions of the Green New Deal out there. I have yet to see one that makes sense. But there are several versions out there. One of the things they call for is the end of the internal combustion. As far as the zero omissions, they dont have the Better Storage Technology to get to that point. A lot of people dont realize there are negative impacts to the environment in every Single Energy source. The only one that i cant figure out a negative impact to would be geothermal. I am sure that if it was more used, it would. On the metals that produce renewable energy. We dont focus on the disposal of the solar panels after the end of their life life expectancy. The disposal of the wind turbines. We dont focus on the impact of birds on the wind turbines. Im not saying that we should not use wind and solar but every Single Energy source has a negative consequence. On the bonobo side, we dont talk about that. That is glossed over. We will follow that up. You mentioned the battery technology. It is true, batteries are not perfect yet but theyre getting better. Admin. Wheeler we need to get them even better. The solar panels, the cost was high. All of these technologies, they are improving Like Technology often does. What is the right role for the epa in helping to advance the future without dictating the future . , aemember a few years ago published afficial memoir called a memoir called driving the future. I thought that got it totally backwards. Government does not drive the future. And think we need to have standards in place that dont pick winners and losers in the energy sector. I think it is important for the federal government to help Fund Research to make batteries more efficient. I think that is an appropriate role to help spur that innovation. There is one big problem with the obama cafe standards. If you were to get the admissions that they called for, you would have to have a 50 b fleet i20 25. The only way to comply with the obama regulation was by cashing the mosqueelated to or pay fines. They were expected to be 1 million by 2025. I would have been built into the price of a new car. That would have been built into the price of a new car. Thisourth National Question is given the huge fires that we are seeing out west, do au consider wildfire smoke growing and Major Public Health crisis . Several things admin. Wheeler several things in that question. Health threat of the smoke, absolutely. Smokeis an app called sense that will tell you if it is safe to go outside. Absolutely. The forest fires are creating a e health issue in terms of i should have started with the loss of life from the fires. We are all concerned about the loss of life from the fires. And thets the smoke waters. There is a lot of environmental impact. It seemed to be such a difficult problem to untangle. The climate aspect of this. Here is the private sector what is the response ability of the State Government . The Public Sector and so on . How has the federal government grapple withgin to that . Admin. Wheeler that is mostly outside the jurisdiction of the epa but that is a huge problem. In the private sector, i worked on legislation that was blocked by environmentalists that would have allowed utilities to go in and clean out the dead debris near the lines. They are not able to do that. If they on the property. That is outside the epa jurisdiction. But that is something we need to focus on. Another question. I teach in my Administrative Law class, so many cases are clean water act cases. What is a water of the United States . What why has that been centered uncle problem to just settle through the rulemaking review . That survives a why will this time be any different . It will be different because we follow the law and the Supreme Court cases. Go back to the clean water act. I think at that point, congress was focusing on ships and boats on waterways. It has been expanded over the years by Supreme Court cases to include adjacent weapons. Our definition follows Supreme Court cases. I think it will be upheld. It over the past the first test. At this point, we are in the middle of writing the guidance documents. For the army corps inspectors around the country, i think it is very important that they follow the law the exact same way. I saw this when i was in private practice. You have army corps inspectors that interpreted the regulations the way they wanted to interpret it on a casebycase basis. We wrote the new waters of the u. S. Protection act so the Property Owner should be able to included what is water of the u. S. And what is not. To me that so much of the energy that was channeled into giving getting the epa and the army corps to expand its view, it was wellintentioned and oftentimes responsive to improving scientific understands of how water flows. If only that was channeled into the legislative process. This is my editorial comment. Justify why they are limited by those mandates, the more energy you would hope would be channeled into the process. I will let you make the editorial comment. With the Supreme Court decisions, what is written in the clean water act has not kept up with the times. Another audience question. This comes from the policy director. He writes how can we make sure we have a steady supply of critical minimalism in the United States without being reliant on countries such as china . What is your view of domestic drilling . Domestic mining . The more we rely on these new technologies, the more we become iant on china admin. Wheeler the pad you are holding right now uses rare metals in it. I had a young woman at Cambridge University who said a fairly hostile question to me and she read it on her iphone. I pointed out that if she was that concerned about the environment, she might want to get rid of her iphone because of the precious metals. We need them. We mine in a more environ to environmentally protected manner then anywhere else in the world. If you look at these other countries, they are not following the guidelines and standards in the United States. Attitude as far as extraction and mining in the u. S. Of the worst environmental decisions people can make. We do it in a much cleaner fashion and we follow rules and standards that no one else in the world has. The more overlay on this tablet and the less i rely on this piece of paper, more energy i will be using. Eating the world, the more we rely on these electronics, that will increase not just our Greenhouse Gas emissions but it will challenge our existing Energy Infrastructure, our outdated power grid. What role is the epa playing in helping to ensure that our Energy Infrastructure is modern and efficient . That is outside of our jurisdiction. We do have a responsibility to the regulations dont pick winners and losers on energy sources. They areo make sure updated. The New York Times ran a hit over on us saying we had 100 rollbacks of environment or regulations. What they did not report they only report half the equation. If you are mathematician, you have to have both sides. They did not report that in half those, we replace them with more updated regulations. We are replacing those that are 2040 years old. Science changes a lot. That is what we have to focus on. Whether your time as order of the epa was january long after that, what do you want your legacy to be in leading the apa epa . Admin. Wheeler i said i wanted to leave the agency stronger than when i founded it. I believe it is. I served at the will of the president. He asked me to plan for the second term. I laid that out in my nexen speech. I intend to be here for the next few years to implement that. Every singlen indicator, we have improved. Unfulfilling President Trumps fulfillinge on President Trump possible to clean the water and create more jobs, we have done that as well. We have done that. We have proven we can do that at the same time. Adam i want to think my audience and mostly at home for joining us today. Tuned for future events online. Here is a look at what is live tuesday on the cspan networks. Legislative business is at 11 00. Members will work on a temporary spending bill to fund the federal government through december 11. At 9 00 a. M. Eastern, georgetown law has a preview of the Supreme Courts new term. To judicialeturns and executive nominations. On cspan3, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Jerome Powell testify on the coronavirus response, the has Financial Services hearing. Homelandollowed by a security subcommittee looking at Cyber Threats during the pandemic. Next, state Department Officials testify on chinas global influence. Specifically in
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