President Trump’s latest action to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency focuses on streamlining existing programs and speeding up approvals instead of the all-out repeal that was the hallmark of his first year in office.
The beneficiaries of Thursday’s actions are large manufacturers, which long criticized the EPA under the Obama administration that its national air quality rules were striving for too much, too soon.
Trump’s new order jibes with businesses’ wishes in directing the EPA to take a number of specific actions to ensure states and businesses are given quick answers on meeting standards, which will allow them to move more quickly to build new plants.
Thursday’s order from Trump appears to respect court decisions slamming the EPA for trying to delay the Obama administration’s ozone rules, a top agenda items for manufacturers. EPA Administration Scott Pruitt had tried to suspend the rule for three years, but a federal judge deemed the attempt illegal, forcing Pruitt to implement the Obama-era regulations.
Trump bemoans the ozone rules, but that’s as far as Thursday’s actions go.
“In some areas, revised [air quality standards] are approaching what are considered to be ‘background levels’ of pollution (i.e., levels associated with natural sources or emissions originating outside of the United States), leading to significant practical challenges for constructing or expanding manufacturing and industrial facilities,” the new Trump order reads. “Those challenges range from difficulties in demonstrating compliance to costs and uncertainty associated with permitting delays and emissions-control requirements.”
What the Trump order doesn’t do is outright repeal any air quality program.
“Given the national importance of successful and efficient implementation of air quality standards to promote public health, welfare, and economic growth, this memorandum directs the administrator [of EPA] to take specific actions to ensure efficient and cost-effective implementation of the [national ambient air quality standards] program, including with regard to permitting decisions for new and expanded facilities, and with respect to the Regional Haze Program,” the Trump order stated.
“These actions are intended to ensure that EPA carries out its core missions of protecting the environment and improving air quality in accord with statutory requirements, while reducing unnecessary impediments to new manufacturing and business expansion essential for a growing economy,” Trump added in the order.
Most of the directives Trump outlines are consistent with his ideas for infrastructure development, with agencies speeding up permit and approvals, rather than have them drag out for years, as has been the criticism.
Trump wants the EPA to be more timely in processing State Implementation Plans, or SIPs, which states must submit to the agency on how they will meet air quality standards for smog-forming ozone, regional haze issues, and other pollutants deemed harmful to the public, such as sulfur dioxide.
The order imposes an 18-month deadline for EPA to approve or not approve a state plan from the time it is submitted.
There is also the federal implementation plan, or FIP, in which the EPA takes action if a state plan is deemed inadequate to cut pollution or if a state refuses to meet the standard.
Trump orders Pruitt to review all full or partial FIPs issued in 2007 under the Regional Haze Program and to develop options, the order reads.
The order wants to replace states that are under FIPs for regional haze pollution with “approvable SIPs,” meaning taking away the federal mandatory program and letting the states determine their own destiny in meeting the EPA standards.
It also directs the EPA chief to ensure that emissions and pollutants from other countries are taken into consideration when evaluating plans to meet the standards.
It also sets a one-year deadline for issuing pre-construction permits.
