Andrew Wheeler testifies Photo: Al Drago, AFP via Common Dreams

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, appeared before Congress yesterday and when asked about all the rollbacks of environmental regulations by the agency recently, he defended his leadership saying “All our rules make things better.”  Just in the last few weeks alone, under his leadership, the EPA has refused to regulate perchlorate, a toxic chemical compound that contaminates water and has been linked to fetal and infant brain damage, told polluters that because of COVID-19 he would suspend enforcement of environmental laws that require companies to monitor their pollution, and failed to back up his staff who objected to the Transportation Department’s rationale for rolling back the Obama Clean Car Rule.

Why This Matters:  It is patently clear that EPA is making things better for corporate polluters, not ordinary citizens who are negatively impacted by them.  This administration has systematically worked to pull back dozens of environmental protections for the public — these rollbacks make people sick and they hasten the deaths of thousands of Americans.  And now as we face the COVID-19 pandemic, which we know is more deadly for people who have been exposed to pollution, they are busy trying to expose even more Americans to pollution.

Devastating Recent Rollbacks

In response to Administrator Wheeler’s testimony, the Environmental Working Group put out this list of the EPA’s recent rollbacks of environmental, health, and safety regulations.  The EPA has:

• Refused to limit perchlorate, a toxic rocket fuel chemical, in the nation’s drinking water supply.
• Relaxed rules on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.
• Rolled back auto fuel efficiency standards to allow more than a billion additional tons of carbon dioxide pollution from tailpipes.
• Used the coronavirus pandemic as a reason for halting enforcement of critical environmental laws for the fossil fuel, chemical, manufacturing and electricity industries.
• Proposed to scrap protections for children from atrazine, a toxic pesticide linked to birth defects and cancer.
• Ignored worker safety in the decision to keep methylene chloride, a lethal paint-stripper chemical, legal and in use.
• Quashing safety rules at chemical plants to ease the “burden” on industry.
• Rolled back regulations on how coal-fired power plants store coal ash waste and dispose of waste water contaminated with heavy metals.
• Proposed a new rule that will leave millions of American children exposed to dangerous levels of lead in drinking water.
• Repealed a clean water rule, imperiling drinking water sources for 117 million Americans.
• Repealed rules curbing methane pollution from oil and natural gas operations.
• Over the recommendations of EPA’s own scientists, refused to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that can cause brain damage in children.
• Repealed a federal mandate to combat climate change by lowering coal plant emissions.
• Ignored career agency scientists who called on the EPA to ban the notorious carcinogen asbestos.
• Sided with Monsanto, claiming the cancer-causing weedkiller glyphosate is “safe.”
• Rejected calls to adopt health-protective plan to clean up PFAS contamination.