The most immediate question, after US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator E. Scott Pruitt resigned on July 6, was whether reforms he had launched would continue. They will, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told the agency’s employees on July 11.
“We need to provide more certainty on permit decisions. Now, we’re tracking the time to issue permits for the first time,” he said. “Our goal is to make all permit decisions – up or down – within 6 months. I’m not suggesting we approve all applications. I’m saying we should make decisions within that time period.”
Pruitt made some important moves while he was at EPA. Just in 2018, he signed a memorandum in May describing a “back to basics” process for reviewing the Clean Air Act’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards, proposed revisions in March to air emissions rules for refiners, and issued a guidance memorandum in March clarifying project evaluations under the New Source Review program.
Wheeler said that President Donald Trump’s 3 primary goals at EPA are to clean up the air, clean up the water, and provide regulatory relief. “One way we can do this is to provide more certainty. A lack of this can create paralysis in the marketplace,” the new acting administrator said.
EPA also needs to provide more certainty to states with which it works, he continued. “When Congress established EPA, it intended states to be partners. Administrator Pruitt was in regular contact with our state partners, and I intend to do the same,” Wheeler said. EPA’s regional offices will play significant roles in getting this done, he added.
“When it comes to leadership, you can’t lead unless you listen. There’s a saying that this is why human beings have two ears and one mouth. To EPA’s employees, I will start with the presumption you are performing the work as well as it can be done, and listen to what you have to say before making a decision,” Wheeler said.
More certainty, more jobs
“If we are able to provide more certainty to the public and the regulated community, we can help the private sector grow and create more jobs. But we cannot forget that the US is the gold standard worldwide in environmental protection,” he said.
As for Pruitt himself, the New York Times reported on July 8 that there’s some talk the former Oklahoma attorney general possibly could go after US Sen. James M. Inhofe’s seat if the 83-year-old Republican does not run for re-election in 2020.
Assuming Pruitt got the nomination and won the subsequent election, Sooner State voters would send him back to Washington as an elected—not an appointed—official.
