Against All Odds, Biden’s EPA is Saving Lives and Tackling Climate Change at a Record Pace
By Robert Wolcott and Jeremy Symons
Thank you for tuning into Environmental Protection News. Today’s feature comes from EPN Board Member Rob Wolcott and EPN Senior Advisor Jeremy Symons. As President Biden’s first term speeds by, it’s refreshing to slow down and recognize the invaluable environmental accomplishments achieved in a relatively short time. So adjust your mirrors, roll down your window, and take a nice deep breath (of cleaner air) as you look back at the previous three years of successes within the EPA.
Against All Odds, Biden’s EPA is Saving Lives and Tackling Climate Change at a Record Pace
By Robert Wolcott and Jeremy Symons
In assuming the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency in January 2021, Administrator Michael Regan faced a daunting task. Staff morale was at an all-time low. Nearly 700 scientists had left EPA under Trump. The agency was suffering from an “atmosphere of intimidation and fear,” according to a former EPA enforcement officer.
Ignoring advice from EPA scientists, Trump’s political appointees orchestrated a series of regulatory rollbacks undermining America’s bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The rollbacks came with heavy prospective public health costs – thousands of avoidable asthma attacks, emergency room visits, heart and respiratory illnesses, and premature deaths.
Despite the challenges, Regan was undaunted. “We will restore the roles of science and transparency at EPA and support the talented, dedicated career officials,” Regan promised in his Senate confirmation hearing. “We will move with a sense of urgency on climate change. We will stand up for environmental justice and equity.”
By any standard, President Biden and Administrator Regan have overseen an impressive transformation at EPA that has already delivered exceptional results. Since Biden came to office, EPA has:
Reestablished scientific integrity at EPA and reversed Trump EPA rules intended to undermine science and benefit-cost analysis;
Restored EPA staffing and staff morale, which is now higher at EPA than at any other cabinet agency, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s “Best Places to Work” survey;
Issued 60 final rules, including historic actions to boost environmental justice, address climate pollution, and protect America’s waters, air, and lands; and
Invested tens of billions of dollars in environmental justice, clean air, clean water, and clean energy.
“Promises made, promises kept,” Regan reflected before a standing-room-only crowd at Howard University recently. Regan was unveiling a suite of new standards to cut air, water, and climate pollution from more than two thousand fossil fuel-fired plants, which will significantly improve the health of nearby communities. The rules are expected to deliver $370 billion in net benefits as children and others especially vulnerable to air pollution breathe cleaner air, resulting in fewer asthma attacks, fewer lost school and work days, and fewer deaths from lung disease, heart disease, and cancer.
The Key to EPA’s Success
Career civil servants are the heart and soul of EPA. Biden’s political appointees at EPA – including Regan, Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe, and Chief of Staff Dan Utech – have embraced their dedication and experience as the key to success.
They have been rewarded. EPA staff have responded in kind to the trust put in them. EPA’s productivity and morale have soared. Notably, Biden’s EPA has avoided the chaos and drama that characterized the Trump EPA.
Winning Mainstream Support
EPA has taken an approach that is ambitious and meticulous with attention to law and science, ensuring agency actions are more durable in the courts. SCOTUS has taken a particularly active approach to making EPA’s job more difficult, with decisions like the West Virginia vs. EPA ruling in 2022 and the Sackett vs. EPA decision in 2023. Additional cases on court deference to federal agencies are on deck, with SCOTUS rulings expected in the coming months. Although not directly aimed at EPA, they could raise the bar once again for the agency. The careful crafting done by today’s EPA gives the agency a better chance to persevere.
Even as EPA has tackled each action with careful attention to the law, the agency has vigorously pushed forward, pursuing the pillars that Regan laid out in his confirmation hearing: restoring science and transparency at EPA, supporting EPA’s career staff, taking action on climate change, and standing up for environmental justice and equity.
Some industry lobbyists and skeptics in Congress argue that Biden's EPA has gone too far. But many of EPA’s actions under Biden have won praise not only from public health organizations and environmental groups, but also from labor and businesses.
The United Auto Workers, for example, applauded EPA for “taking seriously the concerns of workers and communities” when finalizing the agency’s landmark clean car rule, which will eliminate billions of tons of pollution from tailpipes.
A number of major oil companies praised EPA for its final rule that will slash methane emissions from oil and gas operations by eighty percent.
Some of the biggest, boldest actions taken by Biden’s EPA enjoy strong, bipartisan public support. For example, 82% of voters support EPA setting stricter limits on power plant pollution, 78% of voters support EPA’s new, stricter clean air standards for soot, and 72% of voters support EPA’s new rule setting tighter limits on carbon emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
Historic Environmental Justice Action
“It's our responsibility to protect every person in this country, no matter the color of their skin, how much money they have in their pocket or their ZIP code,” Regan promised communities that have long suffered cancer-causing pollution from surrounding industry without adequate protections.
EPA has taken unprecedented steps to meet the administration's environmental justice commitments. In April 2024, EPA strengthened clean air standards for chemical plants in order to reduce the number of people with elevated cancer risk by 96% in nearby communities.
Under the landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (or “IRA”), EPA is making the largest investment in Environmental Justice history, awarding $3 billion to help thousands of environmental justice communities overcome the legacy of toxic pollution. To put this funding in perspective, EPA’s environmental justice grants under Biden will provide 80 times more money than EPA has awarded over the last 30 years under the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program.
Fighting Climate Change
EPA has resolutely pursued new rules to cut future climate pollution from the leading sources of emissions. In addition to the agency’s Carbon Pollution Plan for power plants, EPA has issued:
New standards to reduce harmful air pollutants from new passenger cars, light trucks, and larger pickups and vans (EPA estimates the rule will reduce 7.2 billion metric tons of CO2 over the life of the program and achieve net benefits of $99 billion);
A final rule that will sharply reduce methane, a climate “super pollutant,” and other air pollutants from the oil and natural gas industry;
A proposed rule that assesses a fee on large emitters of methane from the oil and gas sector (as authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act);
A final rule to cap and phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are potent greenhouse gasses (EPA estimates the net benefits of this rule to be more than $272 billion); and
The strongest-ever greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles (EPA estimates the standards will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and also reduce dangerous air pollution, especially for the 72 million people in the United States who live near truck freight routes).
EPA is also building economic opportunity through community clean energy. The agency has awarded $7 billion in grants to deliver solar power to more than 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged households nationwide. EPA has awarded $20 billion in grants to finance tens of thousands of clean energy and climate solution projects, ensuring communities have access to the capital they need to participate in and benefit from a cleaner, more sustainable economy.
Protecting Public Health and Drinking Water
In the past three years, EPA has also taken huge strides to protect public health and drinking water, including:
Stronger clean air standards to reduce harmful soot pollution — preventing up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays and yielding up to $46 billion in net health benefits in 2032 (according to EPA, for every $1 spent to meet the new fine particle standards, there could be as much as $77 in human health benefits in 2032);
The first-ever national drinking water standard to protect 100 million people from “forever chemicals” (PFAS) pollution;
A ban on ongoing uses of asbestos to protect people from cancer;
$3 billion in clean ports investments, funding zero-emission port equipment;
A proposal for stronger air pollution standards for municipal solid waste incinerators;
$1 billion in clean school bus grants, which will help purchase over 2,700 clean school buses in 280 school districts serving over 7 million students across 37 states; and
A proposal to require that water systems across the country replace lead service lines within 10 years (backed by $15 billion in grant funding)
Another Promise Worth Keeping
Despite EPA’s historic string of successes, the agency is not done yet.
“Protecting the environment and protecting communities will always be the North Star at EPA,” says Regan.
That’s a promise worth keeping.
Jeremy Symons is a Senior Advisor to the Environmental Protection Network and a former Climate Policy Advisor at EPA. Rob Wolcott is the founding Board Chair of the Environmental Protection Network and a former Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy at EPA.