Hill Heat

On Friday night, an email anonymously sent from “Budget and Planning,” apparently within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, re-froze spending on programs related to climate, clean energy, and civil rights in defiance of multiple judicial restraining orders. Programs frozen range from the Clean School Bus Program to Grants to Reduce Air Pollution at Ports.

The full text is below.

Democratic members of Congress turned away from EPA headquarters, Feb. 6, 2025

To review:

On January 27th, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office Management and Budget, issued a memorandum demanding a government-wide freeze on all programs related to climate, the environment, civil rights, and reproductive health.

On Tuesday, January 28th, the EPA froze all spending:

“The agency is temporarily pausing all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of EPA Federal financial assistance at this time. EPA is continuing to work with OMB as they review processes, policies, and programs, as required by the memorandum.”

On January 29th, the Senate confirmed Lee Zeldin as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with the Democratic senators from Arizona, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, as well as John Fetterman (D-Pa.) joining all Republicans in support.

That same day, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a restraining order against the funding freeze.

On January 31st, Judge John McConnell issued another restraining order against the funding freeze.

On February 3rd, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a strengthened restraining order against the Trump administration’s wide-ranging freeze on funding obligations related to climate and civil rights.

On February 4th, the 24-year-old Elon Musk acolyte and effective-altruism cultist Gaultier Cole Killian was officially designated an EPA employee at [email protected].

That same day, the EPA’s acting chief financial officer, Gregg Treml, announced compliance with the restraining order:

“Consistent with the Order, the agency’s financial system will now enable the obligation of financial assistance. This includes programs within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, including federal financial assistance in the State and Tribal Assistance Grants, Brownfields, and Superfund.”

On February 6th, Democratic members of Congress were blocked by security guards from entering EPA headquarters. They then spoke to the press with environmental leaders from civil society in front of the building.

That same day, a review of financial assistance programs was announced by EPA acting deputy administrator Chad McIntosh, a former Ford environmental executive appointed to the EPA in the first Trump administration.

Email text:

After climate-denier-for-hire Lee Zeldin was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency with the backing of all Republicans plus Arizona’s Democratic senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), over 1,100 EPA employees were told they would soon be fired. More than 300 career staff have already left. Musk lieutenant Gautier Cole Killian is now inside the EPA.

On Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 2:30PM ET, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), climate and environmental advocates, union workers, and members of Congress will hold a rally and press conference outside the Environmental Protection Agency to demand that the Trump administration end its unlawful cut-off of funding to Environmental Protection Agency programs for clean air, clean water, and climate action that were authorized and appropriated by Congress.

Despite court orders requiring the restart of funding, Trump administration officials have failed to release money for Inflation Reduction Act and clean school bus programs as required by law—leaving communities without resources to fight dangerous pollution. While this unconstitutional funding seizure is taking place, unelected billionaire Elon Musk has taken over the federal government in order to target the EPA employees who keep our communities safe.

At this press conference, lawmakers, workers, and advocates will highlight programs still affected by illegal funding cut-offs and attacks on our democracy, as well as demand that Musk cease his baseless attacks on the EPA’s work to tackle pollution and protect public health and the environment.

RSVP

Subcommittee hearing titled “Holding the Biden-Harris EPA Accountable for Radical Rush-to-Green Spending.”

Hearing memo

Witness:

• Sean W. O’Donnell, Inspector General, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials will hold a hearing on May 7, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The title of the hearing is “EPA’s RMP Rule: Failures to Protect the American People and American Manufacturing.”

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Gentner Drummond, Attorney General, State of Oklahoma, testifying the rules are “openly hostile to America’s oil and gas industry”
• Jatin Shah, Senior Principal Consultant, BakerRisk
• Richard Erstad, Vice President and General Counsel, Hawkins, Inc. on behalf of the Alliance of Chemical Distributors
• James “Jim” Savage, Legislative Representative, United Steelworkers International Union

In the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990, Congress consciously separated responsibilities at a plant using certain chemicals for activities before an accident and after an accident occurred, as well as those activities inside a plant fence line and outside of it. Section 304 of the CAA Amendments of 1990 directed Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take the lead on protecting workers within a facility’s fence line, thinking OSHA was best equipped to handle these issues. By contrast, Congress, in section 301 of the CAA Amendments of 1990, gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to protect the environment and human health beyond the fence-line.

Section 301 of the CAA Amendment of 1990, which created CAA section 112®, was intended to prevent the “unanticipated emission of a regulated substance or other extremely hazardous substance into the ambient air from a stationary source” and to minimize the consequences of those releases. Paragraph (7) of CAA section 112® grants the EPA the authority to issue accidental release prevention, detection, and correction requirements and guidance that has manufacturers prevent and manage those accidental risks through manufacturers’ risk management program (RMP) plans.

The EPA originally issued the RMP regulations in two stages: the list of hazardous substances and quantities in 1994 and the risk management requirements in 1996.10 Subsequently, and until 2017, the EPA modified the original RMP rules five times (twice in 1999, twice in 2000, and once in 2004).

On January 13, 2017, the EPA published amendments to the RMP rule (82 FR 4594). The 2017 amendments rule was prompted by E.O. 13650, “Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security,” which directed the EPA (and several other Federal agencies) to, among other things, modernize policies, regulations, and standards to enhance safety and security in chemical facilities. The 2017 amendments rule contained various new provisions applicable to RMP-regulated facilities. The 2017 amendments rule addressed prevention program elements for natural hazards, incident investigation root cause analysis, and third-party compliance audits; emergency response coordination with local responders (including emergency response exercises); and availability of information to the public. The EPA received three petitions for reconsideration of the 2017 amendments rule under CAA section 307(d)(7)(B). In December 2019, the EPA finalized revisions to the RMP regulations to reconsider the rule changes made in January 2017 (“2019 reconsideration rule”). The 2019 reconsideration rule rescinded certain information disclosure provisions of the 2017 amendments rule, removed safer technologies and alternative analysis (STAA) requirements added by the 2017 amendments rule, and modified some other provisions of the 2017 amendments rule. The rule changes made by the 2019 are the current RMP regulations until May 10, 2024. There are petitions for judicial review of both the 2017 amendments rule and the 2019 reconsideration rule. The 2019 reconsideration rule challenges are being held in abeyance. EPA has requested that the Court allow this to occur until the resolution of any legal challenges to 2024 RMP rule amendments or 30 days after the deadline to file such challenges if no challenges are filed. The case against the 2017 amendments rule is in abeyance pending resolution of the 2019 reconsideration rule case. As a result of the EPA review, on March 11, 2024, the EPA promulgated final regulations amending its RMP regulations. The revisions, which are scheduled to become effective on May 10, 2024, include several changes to the accident prevention program requirements for natural hazards, power loss, and STAA, as well as enhancements to the emergency response requirements, expansion of public availability of chemical hazard information, third-party audit and record-keeping requirements, and mandatory employee rights and participation.

Toxic soot pollution affects millions, but it doesn’t need to be this way.

Right now thousands people are fighting hard to ensure the EPA doesn’t let big polluters off the hook when it comes to setting the strongest possible standards on soot pollution.

Join us at the EPA HQ for our final public testimony as the comment window on national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) closes.

And please spread the word about this event demanding clean air and healthier communities now

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Dr. Eric K. Lin, Director, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Dr. Ariel Stein, Acting Director, Global Monitoring Laboratory and Director, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Dr. Karen M. St. Germain, Earth Science Division Director, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Dr. Bryan Hubbell, National Program Director for Air, Climate, and Energy, Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency

The purpose of this hearing is to assess the challenge of oil and gas sector methane leaks from a scientific, technological, and policymaking perspective. The hearing will discuss the current scientific consensus regarding the role of methane leaks as a driver of oil and gas sector methane emissions. The hearing will highlight recent advances in innovative leak detection and repair technologies, as well as the importance of deploying such technologies broadly throughout oil and gas sector operations to achieve large-scale reductions in methane emissions. Finally, the hearing will examine research gaps related to oil and gas sector methane emissions and opportunities for the Federal government to support scientific research activities pertaining to oil and gas sector methane leaks.

Hearing charter

Committee report

Committee staff conclude that oil and gas companies are failing to design, equip, and inform their Methane Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) activities as necessary to achieve rapid and large-scale reductions in methane emissions from their operations. The sector’s approach does not reflect the latest scientific evidence on methane leaks. Oil and gas companies must change course quickly if the United States is to reach its methane reduction targets by the end of this decade. The Committee staff also learned that oil and gas companies have internal data showing that methane emission rates from the sector are likely significantly higher than official data reported to EPA would indicate. A very significant proportion of methane emissions appear to be caused by a small number of super-emitting leaks. One company experienced a single leak that may be equivalent to more than 80% of all the methane emissions it reported to EPA – according to EPA’s prescribed methodology – for all of its Permian oil and gas production activities in 2020.

Witnesses:

• Dr. David Lyon, Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
• Riley Duren, Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Mapper
• Dr. Brian Anderson, Director, National Energy Technology Laboratory
• Dr. Greg Rieker, Co-Founder and CTO, LongPath Technologies, Inc.

Hearing page

Witnesses

• Faisal Amin, Chief Financial Officer, Environmental Protection Agency
• Michael Regan, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency

Atmospheric methane continues to rocket up at record rates, NOAA reported yesterday. As fracking booms, methane levels increased by 17 parts per billion in 2021, breaking the 2020 record of 15.3 ppb. Concentrations of this powerful greenhouse pollutant are now 162 percent of their pre-industrial levels, as the Biden administration pushes for more natural gas production and export.

I will take this moment to remind readers that the EPA is undercounting methane pollution by 77 percent.

The essential Kate Aronoff castigates the incoherence of Democrats in Congress who claim to care about the climate crisis begging oil CEOs to increase fossil-fuel production, instead of acting to take their billions in windfall profits and stop their greenhouse pollution:

Appealing to these CEOs’ better angels is pointless. Although they hand fossil fuel companies billions in subsidies each year, American policymakers mostly confine themselves to begging or berating them into doing what they want.

As Adam Tooze writes in his review of three recent books by Andreas Malm:

To harp on the climate crisis while doing nothing about it is, in the long run, intolerable. Liberals’ failures make Trump look honest. He may deny the science, but at least he’s true to himself.

A Public Meeting of the Chartered Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and CASAC Particulate Matter Panel.

Agenda: To discuss the Draft CASAC Report on EPA’s Draft Supplement to the 2019 Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for PM and the Draft CASAC Report on EPA’s Draft PM Policy Assessment (PA).

11:00 AM

Convene Meeting

Mr. Aaron Yeow, Designated Federal Officer

Review of Agenda

Dr. Liane Sheppard
CASAC PM Panel Chair

Remarks from EPA

TBD

Public Comments on the Draft CASAC ISA Supplement Report and the Draft CASAC PA Report

Registered Speakers (TBD)

Discussion of Draft CASAC ISA Supplement Report

Discussion of Consensus Responses

Discussion of Letter to the Administrator

Dr. Sheppard and Panel Members

Chartered CASAC Disposition of Draft CASAC ISA Supplement Report

Dr. Lianne Sheppard
Chartered CASAC Chair
Chartered CASAC Members

2:00 PM

Deliberation on the Draft Policy Assessment Charge Questions

Chapter 5 (Reconsideration of the Secondary Standard)

Dr. Chow, Mr. Allen, Drs. Boylan, Ponette-González, Turpin

3:00 PM

Recess

Mr. Yeow