Aaron Szabo is an American Chemistry Council (ACC), American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and American Petroleum Institute (API) lobbyist who contributed to the Project 2025 EPA chapter.
Federal workers are under attack. Many people, and the planet, are at stake. But workers are standing up and fighting back.
This Valentine’s Day, show your love for workers and the world by joining the Labor Network for Sustainability and EPA employee union AFGE Council 238 for a special solidarity call. We will hear from EPA workers and leaders on the front lines of Trump’s attacks, and learn how we can take action to defend workers, the civil service, and a livable planet.
Speakers include:
Marie Owens Powell, President, AFGE Council 238
Joyce Howell, Executive Vice President, AFGE Council 238
Justin Chen, President, Dallas E.P.A Local
Holly Wilson, President, North Carolina E.P.A Local
Together, we are powerful. And this moment calls on us to stand together. RSVP for the Zoom link. We will see you on Friday!
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.
“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.
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].
“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.
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.
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.”
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.
House Energy and Commerce Committee
Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee
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
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.
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
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