Information on congressional committees. Scan the code on the right to preorder your copy today. It is 29 to . 95 29 and . 95 29. 95. Michael regan talked about energy security, Climate Change and the Inflation Reduction Act and hosted by sarah wick. He also discussed the train their ailment and the balance regulations and promoting innovation. I think you said your people where they are within three and half hours. We were there on site from the very beginning. State and local governments can partner with industry and the federal government to think about reducing emissions. A host of resources throughout traditional programs to help push back and eradicate against climate pollution. Last year you talked about the plans for the power sector. How does the ira affect what you are going to do with your significant. The amount of investments from ira. Not just for the power sector but for the transportation sector as well. It will allow for our rules to be much more innovative, much more aggressive in terms of the congress but not toward the regulating community. We are excited about that. When we think about our methane regulations, we are going to be able to go further and faster because of ira. Our control strategies and Emission Reduction strategies will definitely be bolstered because of the investments so we are appreciative of the resources. On methane, do you want to describe what the epa will be doing . We have proposed rule out that we hope to finalize this year as well as a supplemental rule. Essentially, if you participated in that comment process we got over half a million comments. Half a million . Half a million. How do you process half a million . That innovation, we were able to incorporate it into realtime. Its about ensuring that our regulations are timed well with the markets and technological advancements. Thats what we were able to do with methane. We will be able to capitalize on those same opportunities with our strategies as well. Certainly, in the innovation core there are a lot of technologies aimed at methane and responding to the need. Theres a lot of a lot coming down the pike. Theres going to be a lot to do. We are hearing discussion about the timing of epa acted as actions and reliability and affordability, how are you tackling that . Help with the longterm investment strategies. In all of our rules, whether its the toxic standard or a Good Neighbor rule or whether its what we call the 111 rule, all of those we are doing through the lens of affordability and reliability so we are working with grid operators, state and local governments to be sure that our rules coincide with the demise and that demand cost and reliability. Im happy to say signing an mou which really does focus on doe actions having a really strong prominent focus on reliability as well as affordability. We are very cognizant of cost and reliability. Is it leading to more cooperation . Absolutely. This is a government approach and leadership starts at the top. President biden has pulled us all into a room a couple of times and said with these precious resources, you all will play well together and you will leverage these resources to up and this Climate Crisis and put the brakes on it. It just so happens that all of us really like each other. Playing very well together. Its hard not to have fun with someone like marty walsh or all of these pieces come together nicely to educate our public, to think about how we capitalize on markets and technology and how we help to usher in a lot of this innovation by providing rules of engagement and thats what we hope we are doing with our technology standards. With greenhouse grass regulations, what are the top issues you are dealing with as you try to formulate all of this . I would say two things. The first is really wanting to take advantage of the market signals and the explosion of technology and ensuring that our regulations are flexible enough to handle a lot of this innovation without stifling the innovation. Rule number two is making sure that every Single Person in this country is able to feel the benefits of these regulations in terms of clean air and clean water and where we clean up our land. We want to have an equitable rule that really does create a rising tide that lists all of those for everyone in this country, but also this is a huge opportunity to remain and be the most globally competitive country as it pertains to new technologies, new Business Models and tackling the Climate Crisis. The president describes this as a perfect opportunity and i believe this is a perfect opportunity, for Economic Prosperity and for clean area opportunity. How do you build flexibility into the system . I think the biggest example of that is our proposed methane rule. This is new for epa. We are stepping out on a limb and we are doing more partnerships with the industry. How do you codify rules that set the Playing Field at a level where everyone has equal instructions and the guardrails for investments, but not block out any technology. There are ways to look at how we aggregate and use data. There are proof systems that we are building in so there are new technologies that come online. Its a little bit of an experiment, but we are excited about it and whats exciting about it is the industry has to save that product and control those emissions. I guess it is unusual. The epa has been doing regulation for a long time, but when you have this amount of innovation going on to make the roles not have that innovation is really a challenge. Some other countries. The first thing i tell some of my team who says this is the way weve always done it and i say well, thats exactly why we are not going to do it. We cannot do things the way we always done it. This entrepreneur spirit right now around the clean energy economy, we are talking about trillions of dollars. We are talking about advanced technology. We have to be innovative and visionary and im of the belief that the Clean Air Act and clean water act gives us enough flexibility to keep up with modern times and thats what we are going to do. Is there much International Collaboration between you and other countries . Absolutely. We do a lot of exchange of information and ideas around how to deploy certain technologies. Pollution knows no boundaries and so theres a lot of conversations with our colleagues in canada, mexico and germany and sweden and france. And africa. This is a global competition that america can win and we dont want our regulations in any way to inhibit all that we can aspire to do. One of the things the ira is doing is stepping up Carbon Capture. Theres a big regulatory arena around that. Describe the arena and how epa is going to tackle it so that these get done in a timely way. This is a question that we hear from people is we want to do Carbon Capture, but that is basically a new technological area that is being innovative. It is. We know that Carbon Capture is a priority for this ministration. All technologies that we can deploy to control climate pollution, we want to lean in on. Luckily for epa, all of the regulatory ownership is not solely hours so we are sharing this with multiple agencies. We have doe playing, the department in that the department of interior. Could that be a recipe for regulatory tangles . I think its good. Number one thing we go back to, we all like each other and get along so we are having fun partnering on regulations that stand span our industries because we know the product that we putting out is not just beneficial to one. Ep solves a problem and creates a problem for interior so what we specialize in for Carbon Capture storage is looking at the error emissions that will be reduced. Thats your area . The second area is for the injection wells. It is our job to ensure those wells dont have any adverse impacts on groundwater or things of that nature. The good news is, we also partner with our state and local governments and there are some states that have more resources and more experience in deep well injections. They are what we call primary agencies where they take the lead and we checked their homework to make sure they are doing it right doing it well. Do you have people on the ground . How do you actually deal with that latter question . For those states, but they take the lead and we support that once they go through a rigorous process. For the states that dont, we partner with those states to provide the adequate read adequate support to see these projects through. Our goal is to be sure that this Technology Works well and works for everyone. We want to be sure that there are no adverse local impacts, there are a lot of Environmental Justice concerns around the storage of carbon and these injection wells and whether they can cause harm to communities. We believe that we can help deploy this technology in a way that is safe for certain communities and obviously there are certain communities where this might not be the technology of choice. Have you started, do you have a lot of projects you are already working on . Weve been hearing in different meetings that people are going into the caption carbon caption business. We are starting to see some states really lean in. We are starting to see some states ask. We are going through a process. Louisiana, this is an obvious Interesting Technology to the state for lots of reasons. We are working with our state partners to be sure that those who can safely deploy can do it in a timely fashion. Another thing you will not be surprised to know, theres been a lot of discussion about hydrogen here. Tell us about epa and hydrogen and the role you play in that. My first briefing on the hydrogen, my team in Research Triangle park set all hydrogen is not created equal and then they showed me a rainbow. Good hydrogen, bad hydrogen. Essentially, we want the hydrogen that is the least carbon sensitive and we want to be sure that the regulations we are pursuing are the ones that encourage the cleanest hydrogen sources. We know that for some of our industries, especially industrial sector, hydrogen can be a huge asset and opportunity for reducing carbon emissions. We are excited about it. The thing that probably keeps us up most is not just thinking about how we design rules for clean hydrogen, but what transports that hydrogen. As we think about the permitting of the infrastructure, i think that is equally a challenge for us as well. One that we are up for. When you are writing rules for hydrogen, what are you writing rules about . For instance as we start to evaluate our rules and regulations for new natural gas plans, we want to be thoughtful about that infrastructure that we want to see in place that would encourage the best technologies around natural gas. Also be prepared for the hydrogen boom. Again, this is another example of when we write and design regulations, these regulations are definitely about today. But we are also thinking about tomorrow. And we want these regulations to be flexible enough to adhere. Just to be simple, what are regulations about hydrogen . We think about, i dont want to give too much away, you think about a regulation for the natural gas plants. When you design the emission we reduction, you want to design a strategy that ratchets down those emissions based on the technologies and options. So we have to carefully consider when we think hydrogen may be available for those types of facilities it using existing infrastructure. We design ushering in and encouraging. Another big thing here, fundamental same that everybody is fundamental theme that everybody is talking about is an and broke leo share your thinking philosophy about how to improve the process. I think the process can be improved. I think most things we do have opportunities for improvement. I think they require hard discussions. Obviously, theres a lot of precedents set through litigation and court cases around fossil fuels. Unfortunately, we are to think about how some of that is not applicable moving forward if we all want to see and usher in some of these lehner technologies that rely on infrastructure cleaner technologies that rely on infrastructure. How we can look at agreements for efficiency without cutting out community and stakeholder involvement. A fair and transparent process. One that follows what i closely track which is compliance with clean air and clean water is what im looking for. What about the fundamental issue of timeline . I think thats the thing that troubles, the lack the lack of deductibility of time productive ability of timelines. Is a former state regulator, i would say some of these timelines absolutely can be shortened. I believe it starts a little bit with trust and as a state regulator, i worked very hard in North Carolina to earn the trust and work with deep energy or some of our facilities and what you want is you dont want to play the cat and mouse. You ask for information especially around certain technologies. The quicker we can get that information and not do the back and forth, the quicker you can shorten those timelines. Lots of permits out there. We had more success when i was secretary because i met with ceos. I met with local chambers. I understood what the Economic Development goals were. They understood what our goals were. We cut out the cat and mouse game. We refuted very quickly and we got the show on the road. I think instead of some of the dances that we traditionally play, weve got to come together and shorten that. For the ira and being able to implement the ira, the issues will be critical. Have you thought that through, how to approach that . Part of it is the ira is going to usher in advanced technologies and newer technologies. Theres less to argue over. We know these technologies are going to be good for pollution, communities, business. For now, we have to get over some of those past arguments that have been submitted in law and submitted in arguments and think about how do we cut through the regular rhetoric and get these investments going. The president has asked congress to take a hard look at this and put some efficiencies in the system so that as agencies, we can begin to follow that new law. We provide recommendations to congress as they wrestle with how we tweak and change existing laws. So much of your agenda will be around the ira. That absolutely will. We are about a 10 million 8 the ira is giving the u. K. 130 billion. We have a little bit of time to spend it, the next five to eight years. 50 billion to focus on Water Infrastructure and remove every leadpipe in this country, 27 billion to focus on advanced technologies to reduce carbon. The tax incentives that is making