The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2018 list of accomplishments presented policies that made compliance easier and less expensive for polluters.
But the administration’s record was not described that way in acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler’s “Year in Review” report.
At the top of Wheeler’s list of 2018 achievements was the completion of “13 major deregulatory actions, almost one a month.” The report said the EPA had finalized 33 major deregulatory actions since the beginning of the administration, claiming savings of almost $2 billion.
Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook disputed the way those savings were characterized.
“The Americans Wheeler is talking about are the corporations fouling our water, polluting our air and exposing children to more pesticides,” Cook said.
Wheeler’s report also emphasized the EPA’s responsibility to protect children. Children can be especially vulnerable to environmental hazards encountered in everyday surroundings.
The Environmental Working Group highlighted several actions it said could put children’s health at risk:
- Approving scores of new toxic chemicals without adequate safety reviews.
- Fighting a federal court ruling that directed the EPA to carry out a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos.
- Moving to alter an earlier rule that had reduced mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants. Mercury is known to harm the nervous systems of children and fetuses.
- Replacing the Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants. Researchers writing in JAMA assessed potential health consequences of the replacement.
- Placing the agency’s senior children’s health official on administrative leave.
- Declining at the time, according to reporting, to set a legal limit for PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
- Repealing safeguards governing pollution in sensitive waterways that supply tap water to millions of people.
When The Washington Post asked Wheeler to name three policies the administration was pursuing to combat air and water pollution, he replied: “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to give three off the top of my head.”
Source disclosure: This archived article was supplied by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy and research organization. Its characterization of the EPA record reflects that organization’s analysis.