In the News

Ellen Gilinsky, former Associate Deputy Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article discussing how many wetland permitting responsibilities may be pushed to the states, which may not have enough funding to support expanded environmental programs.

Betsy Southerland, former Director of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in this article describing the important role state regulations will play in protecting against PFAS in the event of EPA PFAS policy rollbacks under a Trump administration.

Stan Meiburg, former EPA Acting Deputy Administrator and former Regional Administrator, EPA Regions 4 and 6, was quoted in this article about EPA staffing levels, the need for the agency to hire more to achieve its mission, and how staff reductions could impact any Trump administration policies.

Ronnie Levin, former Senior Scientist, EPA Region 2, was quoted in FOX Chattanooga about a letter alerting over 40,000 Tennessee residents with a perceived risk of lead-contaminated water. Ronnie advises the residents to ask the utility company to test their water using EPA standards and protocols.

Stan Meiburg, former Acting Deputy Administrator, was quoted in The Hill about what to expect with a second Trump EPA, including the inability to carry out basic duties such as cleaning up Superfund sites and responding to disasters.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in E&E News about the possibility of Trump appointing Robert F. Kennedy to lead Health and Human Services (HHS), and how HHS policies can influence EPA regulations.

Michelle Roos, EPN Executive Director, was quoted and EPN was mentioned in this article discussing President-elect Trump’s plans to undo the environmental progress made under President Biden.

Stan Meiburg, former EPA Acting Deputy Administrator and former Regional Administrator, EPA Regions 4 and 6, was quoted in this article about the potential transition scenarios going into the 2024 presidential elections.

Jeremy Symons, EPN Senior Advisor and former Climate Policy Advisor, EPA Office of Air and Radiation, was quoted in this article about FOIA requests made by conservative groups targeting the emails of EPA career staff.

Jeremy Symons, Senior Advisor to EPN, was quoted in E&E News about former Trump aides submitting FOIA requests for emails from senior career EPA employees to single out, intimidate, and fire civil servants.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, and Bob Sussman, former Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel to the Administrator, were quoted in The New York Times about how EPA has recovered from budget and staff cuts during the Trump administration, but, a second Trump term would still methodically restructure the agency.

Margo Oge, former director, EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, and Jeremy Symons, Senior Adviser to EPN, were quoted in E&E News about how Project 2025 intends for political appointees to lead the Air office with the ultimate goal of intimidating career staff to let polluters off the hook.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in Inside EPA about criticism of EPA’s PFAS Aquatic Life Criteria coming out before human health criteria. Betsy argues that aquatic criteria is a useful first step in establishing state standards.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, and Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, former Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Research and Development, were quoted in Undark about how toxic chemicals like PFAS would be regulated under a Trump administration versus Harris.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, was quoted in Inside EPA about the impacts of requiring narrative conditions, the topic of the ongoing Supreme Court case City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, et al.

Tracey Woodruff, former EPA senior scientist and policy advisor in EPA Office of Policy, and Director of the program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, UCSF, participated in a panel hosted by the National Toxicology Program and was quoted in Inside EPA, arguing that EPA should adopt probabilistic methods when developing risk assessments for non-cancer risks, opposed to the reference dose methods used currently.

Betsy Southerland, former Director, Science and Technology, Office of Water, was quoted on NPR’s All Things Considered about EPA’s new rule requiring all lead pipes to be replaced within the next ten years and the time crunch EPA was in to replace a Trump era rule.

Bob Perciasepe, former EPA Deputy Administrator, and Jeremy Symons, Senior Adviser to EPN, were quoted in E&E News about The Heritage Foundation’s FOIA request of over 2,000 records across all federal agencies.

Margo Oge, former Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, penned an op-ed in Forbes refuting the false choice between economic growth or climate action that Project 2025 touts. Margo writes that Biden’s simultaneous success of an ambitious climate agenda and growth of the clean energy economy lay the foundation for a global clean energy transition.

Elin Betanzo, former Environmental Engineer, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, and Ronnie Levin, former Senior Scientist, EPA Region 1, were quoted in The Guardian about lawsuits backed by the utility industry against EPA and its recent PFAS drinking water standards. The utilities allege that EPA did not use adequate science and data when writing the rule.

Linda Birnbaum, former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP), was quoted in CNN about the dangerous levels of flame retardants found in black-colored plastic kitchen utensils and children’s toys.

Stan Meiburg, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator in Region 4 and Region 6 and Acting EPA Deputy Administrator; Jeremy Symons, Senior Adviser to EPN; and Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, former Acting Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development, were quoted in Fast Company about how Project 2025 would politicize EPA, causing detrimental public health impacts that would take decades to recover from.

Betsy Southerland, former Director of the Office of Science and Technology, EPA Office of Water, wrote an op-ed, “Project 2025 Ensures PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Will Contaminate Us Forever,” that was featured in E&E News.

Jeremy Symons, Senior Adviser to EPN, and Rob Wolcott, former Deputy Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Policy, were quoted in Public News Service about EPN’s latest report, Breathing Easy: An Assessment of Public Health Benefits from EPA Air Pollution Standards (2021-24).