Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt launched a new initiative on Tuesday that he said will reverse the adversarial approach to industry under the Obama administration.
“When we consider American business as a partner, as opposed to an adversary, we can achieve better environmental outcomes,” Pruitt said.
The new program was launched as the pro-business “Smart Sectors” initiative, which will seek to form relationships between the EPA and a number of key business sectors from the aerospace industry to electric power utilities.
“The previous administration created a narrative that you can’t be pro-business and pro-environment,” said Pruitt. “This program is one of the many ways we can address that false choice and work together to protect the environment.”
Pruitt added: “When industries and regulators better understand each other, the economy, public, and the environment all benefit.”
The program is named for its sector-based approach that is considered to be a smarter way of regulating industry to provide “benefits” such as “increased long-term certainty and predictability,” while opening up inroads to new “creative solutions based on sound data … and more sensible policies to improve environmental protection.”
The initiative will create “program leads” to liaison with each sector of the industry, according to the agency. The leads “will serve as ombudsmen within the Agency across program and regional offices,” it explained. “Staff will also: conduct educational site tours, host roundtables with EPA leadership, analyze data and advise about options for environmental improvement; maintain open dialogue with business partners and their environmental committees; and, develop reports that profile the impact of each sector on the environment and the economy.”
Smart Sectors was formally launched on Tuesday with industry at EPA headquarters in Washington, led by EPA’s Office of Policy. The industry sectors represented at the launch, included: aerospace, agriculture, automotive, cement and concrete, chemical manufacturing, construction, electronics and technology, forestry and wood products, iron and steel, mining, oil and gas, ports and marine, and utilities and power generation.
A number of groups issued statements with the EPA press release announcing the launch of the sector program. Many of those that issued remarks included many of the industries that EPA currently regulates, including the ethanol industry, the oil and natural gas industry, the coal industry, and utility trade groups, along with other industries such as the paper industry and marine boating manufacturers.
