The Environmental Protection agency. I want to welcome also the epa chief Financial Officer who is joining the administrator. Administrator is here. We are seeing the impacts everywhere. Longer fire seasons and more intensity of those fires decreased snow packs and the impact of that on our rivers and irrigation waters. The more Severe Weather events of the Atmospheric River as weve heard so much about on the west coast this year to warmer algae infested leaks across the country to droughts and record a shattering heat waives. Every part of the world was is experiencing these impacts and the damage is staggering and is going to increase exponentially unless we act decisively. I believe that to me ats this moment we have to accelerate our transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy. And we have to tackle that crisis both from supplyside of fossil fuels as wells as the demand side. This is why i adamantly opposed the biden administrations approval of the fossil fuel projects one project after another. Not only does such approval slow the transition here in america but it undermines our moral authority in the world. Its hard to ask the rest of the world to transition off of coal or other fossil fuels to renewables when we are continuing to approve one fossil fuel project after another. The world leads american leadership. And to lead, we have to have the power of our example. While i believe we are headed in thear wrong direction in that regard, i do commend your agency for taking meaningful actions over the last several months. First the cars and trucks emission rules are critical to reducing our carbon footprint. The transportation sector is the largest source in the United States and that means we cant make meaningful progress without addressing those emissions. Im a strong supporter of building and deploying more electric vehicles to reduce the Greenhouse Gases from transportation and those proposed rules go a long way towards aggressively pushing up production and that direction. Recent red press reports about the plans to reduce power plant emissions also indicate a step in the right direction. Power plants another major source of Carbon Pollution and this latest rulemaking prioritizes the reduction of emissions while promoting clean energy. In march, the Energy Information administration forecasted that by the year 2050 wind and solar will account for 56 of electricity generation. Newly built gas plants become standard assets unless they have the most feasible new technology. The Inflation Reduction Act provided important distinctions to clean up the power sector and these rulesct with the new authorities and investments. These actions are commendable common sense and should be finalized as quickly as possible, which im sure you are thinking about every day. Today we are here to discuss the fiscal year 2024 budget request for epa which is 12. 119 billion increase from fy 23. Funding level would make a muchneeded grounded epa after the past decade of budget gaps and four years in the Trump Administration spent getting the agency. The budget includes a 5 million to support the work of reducing emissions and increasing resilience and engaging other nations and the challenge. It builds upon the work we made to remedy environmental injustices, the work weve done together over the years including a step up from just 11 million to 105 million in fy 22 was an important effort to tackle historic disparities in the burden of pollution and im impressed that the epa budget requests again prioritizes Environmental Justice by including anri additional 267 million increase to tackle this challenge, and i look forward tock understanding the ways that you would see these unspent to achieve that goal. Youve also highlighted in in the request the epa is working with the service on prescribed burns in a particular matter standard exceptional events into this is critical back home in my state where wildfires are growing more devastating year after year and on that particular matter the key is we have to be able to do the prescribed burns which sometimes will violate the standards and i know putting that into the overall frameworkrd is importan. Especially pleased to see agents release this notice for the grants which will close in less than a week after communities across my state and much were blanketed caused by the historic wildfires a few years ago i created this program to support locals to protect against wildfire and smoke hazards and look forward to seeing real results on relief that threatens businesses and Public Health. Even with the increases proposed in this budget the epa budget is stillep less than it needs to be because there is even more that needs to be done as i am sure you are pondering. We are behind in rebuilding the agencys workforce the Staffing Levels are still short of fiscal year 2009. We must make progress in hiring epas ecologists, hydrologists, toxicologists and specialists who can meet the challenges with the facing climate chemicalbased economy and crumbling infrastructure. Finally i look forward to talking more indepth about plastics. Just this year in East Palestine ohio and richmond indiana we have two disasters that resulted in no small part from the addiction to plastics and we are learning more and more about the problems plastics present both to human health and damage to ourns ecosystems. Then the fossil gas industry plastics are a way to expand production even as they are contributing enormously to climate chaos. So what more is to be done about pollution to combustion to where it piles up and i do appreciate your response about reports of the epa has expedited the approval of chemicals that are produced through the plastics. The article has written about that and its very concerning and i appreciate your response. If there is no objection i will entered into the letter. Without objection. Im still concerned that they are failing to protect communities already overburdened with toxic chemicals and other forms of pollution when it comes to that process. The report by the guardian shed light on the approval process epa used for products on the socalled chemical recycling. While this strategy continues the testing requirement for new the pollution that may result in the facilities may in fact increase the damage and already burdened communities. Similarly approval expending the fossil fuel pipeline in my state is contrary to the steps oregon has taken to create the future. I hope and expect the epa to work with the federal family in particularar to respect the wiss of oregonians and californians and washingtonians to stop that process from moving forward. According to the analysis, the express project would emit 2. 3 metric tonsns of emissions each year until at least 2052. Over the next 28 years it will cost 9 billion and climate damage and thats using a methodology that is systematically minimizing the climate impacts adding new emissions through pipeline extensions like this is incompatible with President Bidens pledge and would undermine the efforts for clean energy futures. Now im delighted the Ranking Member is here and we will turn to her. Ophone over good morning and welcome back to the committee. Good morning to you. Glad we are able to discuss the epas fy 24 budget request with you this morning. Im going to start off by just acknowledging and thanking you for the working relationship you and i have built with your time in office and your team working with mine. Before i turn to the issues this morning i must note my concern overve the direction that i believe the agency is taking with regards to recent and planned actions in particular i believe the agency is engaging in Regulatory Overreach which the senatete has expressed its disapprovalif one. These National Regulations often have a disproportionate impact on the state of alaska weve had an opportunity to discuss a significant percentage is considered a wetland. The finalized rule to consider special characteristics such as permafrost and will harm much muchneeded development within my state. While i have serious concerns about how the National Policies will negatively impact alaska, i would like to focus on more positive matters and i want to thank you sincerely for your agencys leadership on the issue of contaminated lands. This is sam and environmental injustice that we have discussed. Its an injustice caused by the federal government and it has been left without action for far too long but thanks to you and the support of colleagues here onre the committee we have a new Grant Program to finally begin making a difference and remediate these contaminated lenses. Under the promise and commitment to the peoples with this claim settlement they were entitled to certain lands. We have worked to make good on that commitment but unfortunately what happened over the course of years where contaminated lands had been contaminated by our own government are conveyed to the native people in settlement for their land so what theyve received is not only of questionable value but many times the land that they have received are making them ill and sick so this was an injustice that must be corrected and we are making a difference here. The agencys request continues and 20 million and i truly appreciate that. What happened with of the epa was considerable because the epa stepped forward into the leadership roll on this contaminated land. I dont mean to pit one department against the other but the fact of the matter is the department of interior has failed to be helpful on that issue so there were some key members on your team. There were some others that again put their shoulder into this and advanced to this in a way that has been positive and remarkable and i want to make sure that others know that you deserve this public accommodation now these efforts are going to directly improve t the health and wellbeing of so many communities and the work cannot be understated in its importance. So i hope andd i know there is more of you and i can do together to write this injustice soin im looking forward to finding further Creative Funding Solutions with you and invite you to come to alaska at any timeo to meet and some of the communities with me and i know we look forward to doing that at a point in time. I want to turn to an issue that weve hadt opportunity to discs before and this is the agencys certification program. I get that this is a problem you have inherited but unfortunately its coming to a head for communities in the interior part of p my state. Earlier this year they partially accepted and partially rejected the state of alaska state implementation plan. I believe that the agency fundamentally misunderstands the roll that its flawed certification played in the emissions within the region. In february of this year the epa Inspector General released a report heavilyr, criticizing the agencys handling of its program. The report states that the mismanagement has led to elevated emissions even though congress provided almost 100 million for woodstove change outs over the last eight years through the targeted air shed a grant. I worked hard on that and i think you know i secured tens of millions of dollars for the change else in the airbags area through this grant which should be good. It should be a positive. So im really very frustrated by the reports findings. Byby failing to properly certify the test would heed her ambitions the epa has frustrated the congresses investment and intended goals. So, administrator, im calling on your agency to fix its handling of the wood heater Certification Testing Program and to internally provide whatever resources are needed to achieve that. To show my commitment, last year we provided a one milliondollar increase for staffing and other efforts to help write the program, but it really is just not fair that my constituents in fairbanks and north pole are going to Face Increased Energy Prices or perhaps even worse than that, energy and security due to potential actions that the agency may take against them for their own mismanagement. Im going to be in fairbanks this weekend and i can tell you this is going to be a hot topic. Last ie. Want to discuss the agencys handling of congressionally directed spending projects. I do appreciate that the Congress Rather rapidly revive the significant workload for the agencies when we brought back the project is in fy 22 but i dont think that excuses the agencys performance so far in executing these important and needed investments. Congress has provided Additional Resources for the agency to implement thece revised program but i dont think more staffing alone is going to fix the problem. I think that the agency hasnt made this a significant enough priority. In 22 and 23 the congress funded over 1,000 projects for the epa to manage and to my knowledge only a small percentage of the projects have been awarded so im concerned about the pace particularly since congress looks poised to continue the project is for epa into the future as i think they should. The agencies got to do better here and to show you im going to be your partner in this, im certainly willing to work with you on any initiatives that you may have any suggestions that you think can improve this data processing. The delay impacts the project is nationally but also significantly in my state of alaska. I want to thank you for your help with several of those projects like those of the contaminated lands but also the building inn fairbanks and generally im somewhat a big welder to put critical water and Wastewater Infrastructure projects are lagging severely behind. So i hope that you and your team will bee able to explore ways in which the projects can be awarded faster concluding in a Creative Solutions which we could help secure in our bill. I know that implementing isnt easy so i thank you for your work and all the Agency Personnel that are working on this. Hopefully wepe can make these Success Stories that we know they should and could be. Ive given you a lot here in my Opening Statement mr. Administrator, but know that these are issues that are so important t across the state of alaska and weve got a good working relationship i think strong workingti relationship ad thats why im comfortable raising these issues with you personally because i think that we can make a difference for the state of alaska and across the country so doesnt mean im going to stop knocking on your door anytime soon. We are going to Work Together and again i look forward to the opportunity to be able to show you personally some of the challenges that we are facing and what more we can be doing to addressg them. With that, thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator. And on behalf of the chair, let me recognize the director for his Opening Statement. Thank you members of the committee i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the vision laid out in the United StatesEnvironmental ProtectionAgency Fiscal year 2024 budget request. In the request we lay out a transformative plan with a goal ofsf building a healthier and me prosperous nation while ensuring global competitiveness, Energy Independence and energy security. President bidens proposed fy 24 budget request for epa provides 12. 1 billion to advance key priorities including protecting air quality, upgrading of the nations Water Infrastructure, tackling the Climate Crisis and rebuilding Core Functions at epa. Li over the last year epa made significant progress towards many of these goals and weve taken action to cut the air pollution which would reduce the risk of cancer and nearby communities by almost 96 . Weve taken strides to ensure that all people have clean water by proposing the firstever legal limit investing billions of dollars to remove 100 of lead pipes across this country and weve accelerated the transition to a clean Transportation Future by proposing the strongest of her standards for cars and trucks while awarding 2,400 Clean School Buses to School Districts all across the country. Im proud of this foundation that we have laid out into the partnership that we have underpinning our success. But there is still more work to do so that all of our children have safe, Healthy Places to live and learn and play to build a sustainable economy and to advance American Innovation and ingenuity. Simply put, investing in apa is investing in america. Across the country, poor air quality still affects millions of people perpetuating Harmful Health and Economic Impacts. In fiscal year 20 for the agency will protect air quality by cutting emissions of particulate matter and air toxins. The president s budget includes 1. 4 billion to improv air quality and set standards that reduce pollution from multiple and stationary forces. Set the standard provide certainty to industry, build on advances and technologies and reinforces the Market Movement toward the cleaner Energy System that provides reliable andrg affordae energy. A thriving economy also requires clean and safe water for everyone in this country. Although progress has been made many still lack access to water and face the infrastructure and suffer from the effects of lead pipes. S. Americas Water Systems are also facing new challenges including cybersecurity threats, Climate Change and emerging contaminants. The budget proposes more than 4 billion to upgrade the drinkingpg water and Wastewater Infrastructure nationwide with a focus on underserved communities. Over the last year ive hadfo te privilege of traveling across the country from jackson mississippi to East Palestine ohio and i visited communities andnd have seen environmental ad Public Health challenges many of your constituents continue to experience. Ive spoken to families who have been sickened by the air they breathe and ive met with people who live with toxic waste in their backyard and ive seen conditions that are simply unacceptable in the United Stateses of america. From investing in the nations Climate Resilience to cleaning up contaminated land and water, there is absolutely no shortage of work to be done. Senators of the committee, epa is up for the attack. We are eager to work with all of you to deliver for our fellow americans and to secure the nations global competitiveness, but we need your support. Both of the urgency and Economic Opportunity presented by Climate Change requires we leave no stone unturned he and i also like to take a moment to remind folks we must keep moving forward. The 2024 will undoubtedly present a unique set of challenges and moving backwards certainly is not an option. Reverting back to the fiscal year 2022 budget would force the agency to make very difficult decisions. Epa would have to cut hundreds of millions of dollars on programs that protect communities all across america, impacting the ability to hire critical stuff including toxicologists, engineers, scientists and others who play a crucial roll in protecting the people of the country and our planet. With a reduced budget the epa may be forced and it might endanger efforts to address Climate Change and might rollback our progress that weve made on Environmental Justice. President bidens budget position to create a durable Environmental Policies invest in america and to set the nation on a path to win the 21st century. It would also allow us to address the Environmental Concerns of millions of americans and fundamentally improvef peoples lives for the better. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to submit this testimony for the record. And i look forward to our continued partnershipste to achieve these ambitious yet necessary goals and welcome all questions. Thankar you all. We are going to have seven minute rounds and i will ask everyone to wrap up there questions as the time runs out so we can make sure everyone gets a chance to ask and we will have probably an opportunity for several rounds. I will just begin, administrator by asking you about the House Majority proposal to freeze funding to fy 22 levels and the consequence as it would translate to the grant accounts by nearly, cut it by nearly a billion dollars. Including 600 million cut unde the program that would replace lead pipes and update the drinking Water Systems and support other Water Infrastructures. It seems like that is at odds with bipartisan support for the Water Infrastructure and i wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify what that house proposal would do. Thank you for the question. And our job is fundamentally about keeping people safe, to safeguard the various things that we all hold dear like the insurance that when our children turn on their tap water, the water they drink will be clean or when they play outside of the air they breathe will be safe undoubtedly if we were to rollback the budget to the 22 levels it would force us t to me difficult decisions in terms of protecting the health and safety of all americans. It would also cut hundreds of millions from the program that impact the market. We understand that there are pesticides and herbicides that need to know make it to the market to give all the farmers the tools they need to be successful to feed this country so there will be significant impacts on the ability to put significant products on the market to continue to help the country be competitive from a global standpoint and more importantly sacrifice the health and safety of some of our publit citizens. So if i can simplify to the lead pipe issue since thats a condition that affects the developing brains of babies and children and has been a big concernr with that cut the removal of lead pipes resulting in more damage to more children . Absolutely will. April 21 or april 201st, President Biden signed an executive order for the whole of government approach to the Environmental Justice, and you have significant responsibilities under the order and it directs the agencies to make determinations about project permitting. Can you share with the most important tools are in that order and howha you plan to use them to impact the Environmental Justice communities . Thanks to the president s Leadership Team made it a pillar this administration from day number one is so we moved very quickly thanks to your partnership and others to create a new National Program and what i mean is weve reorganized with of the resources we paddled andd put threee offices together to focus on Environmental Justice and external civil rights. There is a number of tools and that executive order that have been adopted by the white house that will be used across the federal families so that we can ensure that our regulations match so that we can protect every Single Person in the country equally under the law. We have made a lot of strides in Environmental Justice and im proud of the record. Im proud of the tools we have at our disposal but now we having an entire federal family thats going in the same direction to ensure all people in this country are protected. Youve proposed a significant increase in the Environmental Justice funding. Can you translate what that will mean for communities that have been burdenedd by high levels of toxic chemicals . It would be tremendous. I believe as a former state regulator that the states know their communities quite well and communities know them even better. And the solution that theyve had for decades on helping to reduce pollution and remove themselves from the front lines need to be met with funding with the request its given more personnel to be out in the field engaging with the communities and looking at the solutions and imagine those with the grants and resources the agency can bring to bear in some cases because of income and because of race, because of zip code, we are seeing an undue and unfair burden on our constituents. Whether iten is lowndes county, alabama, or Mcdowell CountyWest Virginia. This is an issue that plagues the country and it is our job to be sure that every Single Person in the country has access to clean air and clean water. Thank you. Im very pleased to see the proposal for the Greenhouse GasReduction Fund or the greenbank that epa is starting to implement as a part of the bipartisano infrastructure bil. Oregon certainly is Ambitious Goals and theres an opportunity for that kind of funding. Oregon doesnt have its own greenbank in place however. Willll you commit to making sure other states that dont have their own states can still have accesste to the Greenhouse GasReduction Fund . Absolutely. What is your plan for ensuring that it makes it to Environmental Justice communities . At epa weve built Environmental Justice into our very dna so number one we have concrete metrics that are attached to the 27 billion to be sure that disadvantaged communities into those that are disproportionatelyni impacted he access to this capital and we plan to make two or three awards under the National CleanInvestment Fund in addition to the seven under the Clean Community investment accelerator, which will definitely partner with more grassroots organizations, Community Development banks and the like. Then we have about 6 billion to focus on or 7 billion to focus on the solar parole competition so we will build metrics to make sure those who need the resources the most have a seat at the table and an opportunity to invest in this clean the economy. In 25 seconds do you want to explain . This is an opportunity to provide up to 60 grants to states, tribal governments, municipalitiesnt and nonprofit. To expand specifically the number of low income and disadvantaged communities that are prime for investment and Residential Land community skill. The perfect. Thank you mr. Chairman. Administrator, i mentioned that length in my comments my concern with regards to the Wood Heater Program and theam certification and have suggested that it is unacceptable that the communities of fairbanks and north pole are effectively going to bear this burden for actions where the agency has failed and that the program has to be fixed. I think we recognized it has to be fixed and done at whatever expense necessary so i appreciate the engagement that you and your staff have led on this. Im certainly following this very carefully, but i do understand that you have recently responded to the Inspector General report. Can you tell me what steps the epa is taking internally to improve the wood testing and certification standards and enforcement of those standards . Thank you for the question and we are taking, the oig looks for it very seriously and implementing some of the recommendations we are strengthening our commitment to work with the alaska dtc, fairbanks, north star borough and other key people in the community. We are also designing a Program Using 15 million in funding for ira for testing and other activity to address these. I want to let you know, senator, that t the issue has my attenti. We will continue to prioritize it with these dollars and the report and Enforcement Discretion i believe we can resolve this issue. I appreciate the commitment youve made to reform this program and making that a priority. Weve also heard my thanks for the leadership in the contaminated land is effort. I think you would agree with me that this is one of those situations when we talk about environmental injustice you can put this right under that category so im going to continue to be a very zealous advocate for our alaskan native communities. And in writing this. Weve made some Good Progress but i think we recognize that there is so much that has to be done in this area so i would like your commitment that the agency will maintain its leadership roll on the issue and continue to work with me on all avenues so that we can move the needle on the contaminated lens. We are excited in the act theres a couple programs we can access through that environmental lens to expedite some of the work weve partnered on so im excited about that and thank you for the conclusion of the 20 million in the annual appropriation i think we are going to leverage all the resources and bring suggestions to the situation. Excellent to hear and to know youre looking at the opportunities. I would love to have further conversations with you. I know we hoped to have a call before this hearing and perhaps we can do it as a followon but i think you for that. I also mentioned my concern with how the rollout or how the implementation of cds projects is coming through the agency. And ive suggested and explored some solutions to expedite the project awards whether it is comanagement with the state, programmatic or categorical exclusions. Any of these other ideas. I am not convinced that funding for hiring more personnel as the sole solution and may not even be the most efficient but know that i am ready, willing and able to help secure new authorities in the appropriations if it is needed so i guess what i would like to hear from you is whether you also are concerned about the execution and process Going Forward and whether or not we need to speed up and make it a top tier priority like i do. I am concerned with of the speed of getting the resources to these communities so we are looking at innovative ways to do so whileki maintaining or stayig within those lines that would be sufficient for oversight. Also, many of the communities have never received at this level of funding before. So, we are having to deploy Technical Assistance to be sure they are prepared to receive these dollars and stay within the bounds of the law. I believe with the 15 million received lastea year a fresh approach to looking at how to streamline this and pushing out more technical resources, we can begin to get this program on the right track. I would ask that we have an opportunity to have a followup meeting with your team and our Committee Staff to discuss the ideas on how we can really improve this especially when one asks for more funding for staff. So if you can commit to working with us on that. Everyone ispf talking about this rightly and certainly in alaska ndwe made and concerned. We had a 10 billion in the bipartisan infrastructure law to begin tackling. I t think that is a good investment. When i talk to communities in my state, they very much want to take on but they are concerned about the regulations and how they could potentially announced two new unfunded mandates. They also expressed the technology isnt advanced as it should be. We have some groups in alaska that are being innovative and working on somed cuttingedge Remediation Technologies encouraging but how do you view the concerns of those that have to meet these standards with no further financial help from the government are we in a good place with testing and Remediation Technology that is affordable for the water system and ready to be applied of a National Scale everybodys talkingie about it. Coming from North Carolina and facing this firsthand first and foremost that is on my mind. We know 5 billion is dedicated specifically for small disadvantaged Water Systems who want to continue to match those dollars with our traditional budget to be sure there are small disadvantaged communities that arent left behind we do and we are investing in new testing methods to detect this. We also know there is existing technologies and we hope those costs will come down but we want to engage with those that have innovative ideas how to detect because we are in that research and Development Mode and all options should be considered. We will have an opportunity for you to meet some of the folks there. Senator reid. Thank you very much mr. Chairman and director for joining us today. Like many of my colleagues im still reeling from the budget that would substantially cut the epa. In fact you indicated the lowest levelle from 2013. I was chairman of the committee, and senator murkowski was a Ranking Member. A lot has changed since 2013. And a lot of new problems have emerged. We are requiring the resources to deal with those problems. One of the issues we have spoken about is the lead pipe challenges and making sure everyone has clean Drinking Water. At the proposed republican budget 226 million in the program and set it back tremendously. But theres so many other areas and one area that i think would be also hit would be appropriate Staffing Levels for epa so it can do its job. It is a concern whether it oy chemical facilities oregon and my engagements without the Agricultural Committee the courts have taken away so many toolsur from the farmers. Theyve taken so many pesticides and herbicides off the shelf. We need to staff and the resources to get new products on the market so farmers can have all the toolss they need. I think also as a state regulator you know one of the most frustrating things is to go to a Regulatory Agency and because they are understaffed and underfunded they are not able to respond to a request or anything else and what that does is undercut brinkley the faith in the institution. I am beginning to think more and more that this approach of budget cutting is not just about saving money. Its about evaluating the institutions that are not necessary to compete and succeed in this world. That might be more commentary than question but i think that is absolutely correct. Ive spent more time with the agricultural community. I just did a session with a wedge of ceos and executives from the auto industry. I met with all of our ceos and the power industry. We have staff that are working with of their staff to make sure we are taking advantage of the latest technologies and we have a relationship so that we can keep the country going with the competitive reduction and staff it reduces the ability to help the economy grow and help us to bey sustainable. With respect to the lead pipe issue you talked about, i cant say enough how critical because of exposure to lead and a child has extreme consequences, neurological development, Cognitive Development and theres a lot of young people because theyve been not a fortunate enough to live in wealthy communities have been exposed to lead infected water and now their ability to function is in pain for a lifetime. So this isnt just a an issue of course of benefit analysis. Its also a moral in. The band we have to do more cutting this seems to be not just an efficient but rejecting a commitment we should have. I absolutely agree we received from the bipartisan infrastructure but over the past year we worked with every state in the country and developed a more robust inventory. We know we have 9 million lead Service Lines in the country close to 40 billion. We have to close the gap. Absolutely no acceptable or safe level of that exposure for our children or anyone. Director, one of the things we were able to pull together was theeo geographic programs ad we were fortunate to create one in southern new england and one of the critical reasons its a problem as senator murkowski doesnt have because alaska is pretty big but it occupies a large portion of our state but its borders come from two adjacent states, massachusetts and connecticut so unless we have a regional approach to issues of pollution et cetera, we cant effectively control the quality of water throughout rhode island so we have this program that is extremely effective and its one of several programs and again they are in severe jeopardy of being eliminated, underfunded or understaffed. Can you speak to the importance of these programs and also the efficiency . Very Important Program and listening in on the president s budget there is an increase of 70,000 above 2023 that we would like to help ensure in the programs. As you said is serves as a hub for the restoration of the watershed at the southeast new england. Protecting the watersheds and Ecosystems Services provided and help sustain the regions communities and Environmental Assets well into the future and i will say we recognize this and controls on a network of stakeholders and experts that seek out and support innovative practices that complement the work all of us are doing to protect this border said is so it is extremely important and also a Great Organization and program that does a lot of good work not just for the ecosystem as you know that for the economy. Thank you very much mr. Director and mr. Chairman. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Administrator, thank you for being in front of the committee today. I appreciate your work and interest. Your reference to something i appreciated into something ive been working on for years. Actually asef a staffer in this very building got to work under senator shelbys leadership to help secure the 23. 4 million grant to get to work on this very issue. Additionally, we added to that to the congresswomans work with a 1. 8 million revenue stream moving to help fix this problem. We certainly know and believe that we have to upgrade and repair the systems and look forward to working with you moving forward. As you know, congress was disapproved a few weeks ago of theek new rule and im grateful that they are currently protected from its impacts by a federal court ruling. When the farmers wake up early in the morning to take on their day to mending fences to planting and harvesting, the have enough on their plate. They should not have to worry ponds, ditches or mud holes are federally regulated. The uncertainty of the rule has created and continues to create an unsustainable state of the country. The cost is hundreds of thousands of dollars for americans thaty comply with whatever changing regulations. Alabamas shouldnt need to pay a lawyer to find out if it is not federally regulated. When theyy calculated the Economic Cost of benefits of the new biden rule did they consider the impact of that uncertainty if its created by the ambiguity . Thank you for the question. I would like to say ive tried my best. Ive met with our. The ambiguity isnt just solely on the epa. Multiple courts have weighed in on this at least three to four administrations have tried to get this right. What we have done is taken a look at what the courts have ruled prior, what the Supreme Court said prior, and we attempted to put a rule in place that is more durable legally at the end we have seen. Has and how damn Economic Impact . I think everything that we do can have a plus or minus Economic Impact, which is why we have worked so hard to provide the certainty others have failed to provide so far. On the primary Economic Analysis on this latest rule you said it would have no Economic Impact and you signed off on that. Do you agree with that assessment . I think your question in terms of uncertainty of the Economic Impact is one that i would not say we reject the premise of the question but the Economic Assessment that we do is based on our legal assessment of what the law requires and what we put in place so the farmers to have a certainty to comply withl. The rules and i wl say that we are very close with secretary vilsack to be sure that as we implement to the rule, we have the leverage of the resources across so we believed that the Economic Impact would be positive because we thought that the farmers and the former community would have some certainty. There ared Economic Impacts and many of those have been negative. Alabama, as said there were 64,000 Small Businesses impacted by this and thats 165,000 employees. So im of the belief that our cattlemen and foresters and farmers have tended their land for generation upon generation andd depend on the fruitfulness of that land to continue do the do the job that they love and i believe Food Security is National Security and if we cant feed or clothe ourselves, nothing else matters, so i appreciate your attention to the negative Economic Impacts that have come as a result of this. Ive noticed a pattern of concern from people coming into my office discussing the epa. Many have feared its regulating past with the science will support Orce Technology thats available. To put it bluntly, they fear that the epa regulations are more predicted based on the Green New Deal ideology than that of the science and technology before us. The current epa proposal stretches the limits of what can be consistently tested. Complying with the levels proposed even if possible would divert millions of dollars from needed infrastructure upgrades and worse the turn that i continue to hear from peoples bankruptcy. For power plants there are fears the epa will impose technologies that are not readily available or that actually cannot be implemented at this time. And of course theres pesticides. In 2021 the agency eliminated the use of soybeans, cotton and other crops. In theor past you said youve agreed onr the science and the secretary has personally written that there are safe uses to this product. Since then, theres been blame thats been shifted for setting the bar too high. I understand that it was consistent with the platform the Democratic Party in 2020. I get the political dynamics. What i dont understand is do you think there are good uses to this i and how can we get back o utilizing them . Secretary vilsack and i were working to closely together and we believe in shared science. I think what she says head number of times and i will repeat it is that the usda has its perspectives, but im the one that has the judge and when nine ninth circuit has hit the bar so high that there was a burden of proof that historically has never been placed before, we had to make a decision to follow the law so i think there is a way to follow the law and the science and they may not agree. What about the 11 safe uses. Can epa find a way to. With the epa has done and will committed to and youtube do is move the bar. I think we can talk science for days. I think when the courts give you a mandate have you appealed that mandate . I think the epa presented the best case provide it could. But you have not appealed. Let me be clear the court and its writing expressed serious frustrations with the agencys decisions in the past and expressed frustrations with where we were on endangered species and the like so you can always i hope you repeal that and help them find 11 safe uses. Thank you for your time. Thank you, chair merkley and senator murkowski. It probably feels like everybodys heard me say this a million times but im going to say it again as we continue our progress to return to regular orders this hearing provides another critical opportunity to look at why its important to families that we all work in a timely and bipartisan way to make sure we are providing the resources necessary toe keep people safe because safety is about more than how strong the military is. Families want to know if they could clean air and water and of their kids are not being sickened by pollution. Fish and farmers. We are making meaningful progress to fight. If we want to make sure people in the country are safe we need to make sure they are not breathing small gourd ranking content neededin water or contained to chemicals and we are learning more and more of about how serious a threat. We need to make sure we are not cutting down on the funding. Im glad we had this opportunity to talk about the Critical Issues threatening the environment, the economy and our family and how we can get them to resource to keep the country health, and competitive. I will talk about a piece of recovery u that is an undertakig and the geographic programs and National Estuary program plays an important roll in Habitat Restoration for those foundational species. The 2023 omnibus included robust funding and authorized the new office in the epa. Im glad to hear the first task force is taking place tomorrow but can you give an update to better coordinate the production. Thank you for your leadership and wee have been a partner foa long time i think the Deputy Assistant secretary recently visited in the 2023 increase is immediately going toward the strategic and Initiative Lee cooperative agreements we have for shellfish. For our tribal partners, northwest Fishing Commission is working to finalize the work plans for each of the tribes so we plan to announce a second round of funding in the next couple months. We also have up to 30 million to support the habitat and Climate Resilience projects. So there is a number of resources and strategies put in place to be sure that our partners can be sound on the puget sound. I appreciate that. Administrator as you know House Republicans last week voted for a deep across the board cut to Discretionary Spending over the next ten years. Can you talk about how those cuts would undermine the epas ability to respond to a contamination already in our environment . We know its a visceral issue we are having to address. Weve put in place a roadmap and have about 10 billion to address. Many are still struggling so with of the resources we have on our entity partnering with our federal families to determine the safe levels and how to regulate this forever chemical and as we do such, we are also leveraging billions of dollars from the bipartisan infrastructure law to ensure the disadvantaged communities have access to those . Its our job to keep people safe and we recognize that there are technologies between safety, technology and the detection and that is what we are doing on behalf of the american budget. It would significantly set us back. Housee budget cuts, chemical detection with significantly setting us back and as i sit in my Opening Statement we are moving forward and need to continue because there is so much more work that needs to be done we shouldnt be moving backwards especially getting tools out there and herbicides and pesticides for the communities. I was pleased to see the reason for hundred Million Dollars funding opportunity for the queen the school bus Grant Program that we established. I was glad you were there last october to highlight from the sand the difference it is going tog make. This is a program that is going to improve the health of kids and communities across the country to reduce emissions and support goodod paying jobs. I want to ask during the application phase and the review process how is the epa going to work to make sure that our underserved communities including those on the prioritized School District list are competitive in this program . Weve been doing that since the day number one up the billions of dollars that have hit the streets so far, 99 of the grants have gone to the disadvantaged or low income communities and i f have to say some of my best visits have been in some of the Rural Communities and places like kansas where they are using the school buses not only to transport to and from school but the batteries are serving as backup capacity for the electric cooperative so they are strategic and how we usear the Technology Beyond a Yellow School bus and it is exciting to see the communities do that. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator fischer. Thank you mr. Chairman. Administrator, i was glad to see that the epa issued an Emergency Fuel waiver last week to allow bulbahar to be sold at this summer providing access to that he 15 helps families save money at the gas pump and its better for the environment and boosts the Nations Energy security. The fuel waiver is a good thing i believe we need a permanent fix and i have a bipartisan bill for that to be consumer and fuel retailer to choice act that insures the nationwide permit access to he 15. Mr. Administrator will you commit to working with me to get this t bill out there and so we can and sure we have that he 15 for the consumers in future years. The president has pledged that biofuels are especially advanced would play a part in this economy as we look forward to so i continue to partnering with you and yourpa staff with Technical Assistance to be sure that we can make 15 more accessible. We look forward to working with you on that. Id like to also discuss a proposed rule on reporting requirements for emissions from animal waste. In 2019 when epa proposed to the current exemption for animal waste zero emissions the National Association that association thatrepresents staty response commissions, the tribal commissions and local Emergency Planning committees most supportive of this narrow exemption. In a letter in 2017 they stated emergency release reports for animal waste emissions, quote are of no value to the First Responders and they are generally ignored because they do not relate to any particular event. Epa has requested an additional 8. 4 million per state and local prevention and preparedness. Do you believe that is a good use for the resources to require or to put it more frankly smells that local commissions have stated our, quote, no particular value. I would say we are responding to a couple things. First we had a states request that we take another look because technology has evolved, d. Access to data has evolved. A number of communitieser on the ground have requested this so there isnt a rulemaking. This is our desire to reevaluate sort of how this plays into the broad decisionmaking at the state and federal level. Have you reached out to all states to the department of environment equality for example, have you reached out to all states will not or are you basically hearing just from the states that want to have a new look at it . Let me circle back if weve heard from all 50 states on this and how weve been communicating with all of our states on this so i can followup with you on that. That would be great because i know there are probably just as many states that would take an opposite view on it and as you said earlier, one of the questions my colleagues said its important to follow the science on it and make sure that we are promoting factbased policiesen that have a tremendos impact on each individual state depending on their situations. The bipartisan infrastructure, on which i supported has made historic investments in Water Infrastructure and in many cases targeted those towards disadvantaged communities. They continue to defer to states on how to define disadvantaged communities from many programs including those state Revolving Fund. The flexibility to tailor the resources towards an individual state. Its not a flaw of the state Revolving Funds. Ive heard concerns and also a lot of confusion on how the epa is still receiving the programs or how you might oversee them in the future. Some of the confusion is by and guidance from the epa and administrative executive orders. For example, just this morning at the initiative created by the administration state goal of providing 40 of the b benefitsf federal investment towards disadvantaged communities. Can you tell me how the initiatives with explicit statutory considerations such as in distributing state Revolving Funds. They have their own disadvantagedmu community and omissions. Do you require 40 of the state project. I can answer in terms of the way that you framed it. By law. I think that we were quick out of the gates to to partner people had doubts but working with senator capitol with West Virginia and other states where the first to revamp the definition of the communities so that we could get thista out the door much quicker than is needed. I believe the justice is perfectlyic aligned with the traditional construct of his program and i was very pleased many of our states they look different because of lots of issues but i believe the states have a critical rollal to play d thats true with the budget request, 85 of the increase in the budget goes to states and tribes. Our states are strong partners and im very proud of that. Thank you very much. Thank you mr. Chairman. Senator tester. I want to thank you for being here administrator. I want to talk to you about the program, 17 active sites and 1300 national. They are in the process of being clammed up nationally 20 of the populations within 3 miles of the superfund site and you talk about how successful and impactful the work of the program is with the help of the families who live and work in this area. We worked together members of the committee to provide one of the largest funding increases for a federal agency largely to accelerate and expand the work of the Superfund Programming and your Opening Statement. You always talk about moving forward however the budget request fort fiscal year is only 25 of the fy 23 allocation. Ive sat on the committee for a while. Ive been a democrat and administration republic administrations. We dont play games with of the super funding sites. Have the infrastructure plan and the regular appropriations. We did that to address the superfund problems quicker not to address the. Of 75 decrease from last year because we havent had to 75 decrease. Thank you for the question and absolutely i agree we dont need to move backwards or play any games. The budget for this year is based on the transition of the Traditional Program to the tax receipt programs that this is based on the forecast for theat collection of 2. 5 billion would be achieved in 2023 which will be available for use in our 2024 superfundra program so we shiftd from a Traditional Program that would ask for these. So youre going to get it fromom self funding methods is that what youre saying . The overall top dollar figure that youre going to spend this next year will be as high or higher than last year. This budget we are asking for more staff to keep going. We appreciate that and we will hold you accountable. For the waste and place there are others i can tell you a lot of folks in the communities and across the street are concerned about the remedies. When you testified before the committee i discussed this issue with you and sent a detailed letter outlining concerns about theirs remedy. I didnt get a response so we are going to start again can yo tell me how they are concerned about the remedies and can raise concerns with your agencies and receive honest answers and answers that dont come from the corporations responsible for the waste and placed in the first place . We should get that response in a quicker time and we will do that. Even a response, period. Period. Community engagement at epa we need to be on the ground in these communities. We are going to get to that point, community engagement. Tell me how if im a concerned citizen that i could get an answer from the epa. I i believe we have been on e ground and beefed up the opportunities. People need to feel confident. I agree with that. Tell me how they verify. We believee . In standby the science and have to explain so where is the science coming from . We have some of the best scientists and remedial experts in the world. Does it include feedback from the universities . Absolutely. We take all this information and and we dont take everybodys advice 100 . The answer is it should be and i believe it is because we have to do all these things to ensure that when you store waste and place for hundreds of years that its safe for every community. Most of these are all water. Now i want to talk about community engagement. Residents had the opportunity to express concerns about the lack of progress and effectively cleaning up the community. Folks are frustrated with the process and that is being kind. I will be blunt. You need to fix it and make sure the are listening to folks on the ground. If its happening in butte its happening everywhere. I could read you the news report. There was nobody that stepped up and said you are doing a good job and if they did it was never recorded. It created the largest site in the country and youve got butte that is an incredibly resilient community. They are sick and tired of being jacked around so i need your commitment that we will, you and the people under you come the people in the communities and the region are going to do their best not only to listen but to react to what they are hearing. Can i get that . Absolutely. People came back from the first of may with that feedback taken to heart so we are prepared to engage. This has been going on for a while like before i got here and even longer and i dont think the epa has done a good job of listening to people anytime and that period. Theres two ways to listen. You can listen and ignore or take the feedback and try to do something positive for the community. To thats what i want you to do. In defense of the staff, i am proud of the staff and let me say before the 5 billion from the law that we appreciate from you all this program was underfunded like every other programmatic so our ability to doit outreach and cater to all these sites we are over. We are moving forward not backward. I i agree. Senator ouppercaseletter. Thank you administrator its nice to see you on a different venue. I know youve been asked this question but i want to reemphasize the issue on the funding delay weve heard a lot of complaints at home. You informed folks they would be able to get a certain amount to clear the water area and they cant move forward with the financing without the assurances and timeliness. We heard officers notify the recipients they did receive instructions for the preparing of the application process. Im glad to see that this is moving faster than the fy 2022. What is the status . Has a single funding possibility, have any of those dollars gone outne yet . Senator, the percentage is much smaller than any of us like. 117 applications, 30 of the applications were complete c and 25 of the 30 have gone out the door. What we saw number one in the beginning was the epa was under resources and am prepared for this but number two many of the recipients weve had to go above and beyond a to provide assistae to because they never received at this level of federal dollars before so to keep everyone in compliance, we double down on the technicale assistance. Again 30 completed applications and 25 of those went out the door but we recognize we need to do better. I assume by putting out the guidance or the instructions a little bit earlier. You mentioned under resourced that i i would point out the receive more than 10 million and more than 40 million in additional funding and the Inflation Reduction Act. Certainly thats got to have impacts on the ability to move these projects like senator tester was talking about. Weve been hiring up since we got those dollars and in some cases we are looking at cross crosspollination opportunities for the Staff Members but againt we received significant resources focused on specific projects. So we get people to complete those tasks and where we can leverage that, we are. I want to talk about the modeling that shows the direct and dramatic coalfired power over theve next 17 years based n the act. 43 more coal retirement in epa read projected originally without the law. The recent modeling doesnt account for the upcoming clean power 2. 0 rule that i would like to find out where that is. Do you want to update your to put out your new Clean Power Plan and other rules . We will continue to update it so we can see what the real impacts are going to be . Have you looked at what those would be in terms of the Economic Impact in the job impact in certain areas . Obviouslyn thats one impact tt my state see so where are new on updating in terms is as you are rolling out stringent requirements to your regulations . As you look at our powerpoint powerpoint Power Plant Regulation which should be coming in the coming weeks that will have the corresponding modeling and analysis with that rule. I would love to have my team sit down with yours to walk through all of thehr modeling and the analogies that those rules that are currently out and have to be finished with an interagency review do p the same thing with that revelation as well. It as a cost benefit analysis include the number of jobs that have been lost in the impacts that would be emma committed to . Let me get back to. The analysis is very complex and im sure you can take out a numberer of things in that analysis so what i would like to do is have my team time with you on all of the impacts, positive and adverse impacts for categories on any of the rules that we put out. Let me ask about the class 6 well applications for individual projects which is a state application for the ccus technology. My colleague to my left senator hoeven and i are very interested in making sure we are moving forward on not just the technology, and i know you your statend regulators have done a lot. You have epa and 70 individual permit applications for injection wells that i dont know that any of them have actually been permitted. Louisiana just got their classics state privacy applications and i think West Virginia is very much in the queue. What measures are you taking to make sure the sequestration permits art prioritize and an untimely manner and i know north dakota we have her state regulator before our Committee Said the time they can move applications through much quicker and if had successful applications meet success wheres the ones that are still with epa are languishing. How do you account for that and what is your plan to make sure those move quicker . Are classics well Application Program is absolute priority. The president indicated that if something this administration supports. We have learned a lot of lessons from states like north dakota. We have approved louisiana and we see a mouse will start as a model for the states he planned to move forward with. We have a progressive relationship with the state of West Virginia on their classics well application and the application will be processed. We have uniformity across the region to make sure that our states have similarin applicatis so thank you mr. Chair. I hope they would move quicker. Its aptly critical to move forward to a cleaner environment and capturing and sequesteringrd and utilizing the carbon. Thank you. Thank you senator capito. Senator peterson. Its good to see her today and thank you for your testimony. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative was established as you know in 2009 to accelerate efforts to protect or restore the largest system of freshwater in the world, the great lakes. Michiganders the great lakes are not only in our dna but our Critical Resources for Drinking Water w for 40 Million People to drink water under the great lakes and in terms of Economic Growth and job creation we are incredibly important. Since 2010 we a provider for 2. 9 billion to fund over 6000 projects out the Great Lakes Region including 762 million for 880 projects in my state of michigan. The glr has been a catalyst without question for unprecedented federal agency court nation through the Interagency Task force and the Regional Working Group which is led by the epa. Glr the glr researchers then used on thousands of projects to restore and improve Water Quality for habitat and prevent the control of the bases bases and other environmental problems they face of my question for you as chair of the great lakes Interagency Task force can you speak to how the task force there is Regional Working Group selects the best combination of programs and projects to help improve Water Quality as well as accelerate the protection and restoration of the great lakes . Thank you senator for that and thank you for your in senator stabenows leadership. This initiative has allocated billion dollars under the infrastructureuc line 2022 and n our budget for 2024 or we are requesting the sameel level we requested and 2023 because we want to keep the momentum. On the task force are Great Lakes Program offers a Regional Working Group which consists of representatives from 16 federal partners so they seen a lot of partnerships a lot of excitement especially with the infusion of capital. We take the lead on the gr l. Planning in legit which is done two years advance to help plan for the president s budget. Pr we believe we have a lot of momentum and a lot of participation and we have the resources to tackle these issues. Great, wonderful. Contamination exposure has devastated many communities in michigan as well as across the country for far too long. As you are well aware its not just environmental but a danger toto Public Health and devastate local economies. We have to do anything we can to address the impactt of these chemicals and thats why why want to first to say was pleased to see the epa designates two of the most notorious compounds as Hazardous Substances under the Superfund Program last year. I was also pleased to see last months announcement that epa is considering expanding the list of peace has designated as under the superfund to myst question for you is can you speak to the importance of classified peace apps and what the eve pas plans are to ensure state agencies and affected communities are part of these cleanup decisions . Absolutely and as a former state regulator ofor North Carolina te relationship of the federal government has is so important. Many of our state agencies have delegated authority to implement cleanr air and clean water statutes so having that state and local and federal cooperation is extremely important not just on the implementation side but on the planning side. We have taken important steps to designate and we believe its not only our job to prevent the spread for chemical for an enduring and polluting. If it does we have to clean it up so we are excited about where we are in that process. The pretended hand that the usda and the department of defense and believe we are making significant process not just sitting Drinking Water standards. S other standards as well. Iel appreciate that and i appreciate that two of those substances are part of your action but as you know pfafs and compass hundreds of different variations of that chemical and we would assume they also present significant hazards as being part of that family so my question for you is can you commit to establishing primary Drinking Water regulations for additional types of pizza as soon as possible and how you plan to deal with the broader issue of the lard ar family of chemicals. I can commit to we have 29 additional on the radar and as we get the science in the data and we will continue to work across her family of the cdc and others to determine the Health Impacts and we will continue to move forward designating these dangerous chemical compounds in regulating themm accordingly. I appreciate that. Its a big job and appreciate your focus on it. The next question is Central Research efforts have often been fragmented at various agencies in the struggle to address the full scope of the problems of pfas. Thats why introduce the federal pfas Research Evaluation act cosponsored by a Bipartisan Group of senators murray and an turbine to direct the study by the National Academies of science t engineering medicine o inform decisions by the federal government, State Government industry and other stakeholders as to how we deal with these complex substances. My question for you is can you speak to the importance of having a more comprehensive federal Research Approach to better inform pfas mitigation efforts and to help families and First Responders and our environment that are all impacted by the substances . Its absolutely imperative that we have Additional Research into this chemical compound in into the technologies that enter our bodies. Thats why we have asked for 170 million in the budget for 2024 so that we can keep pace with the research and development being done with their federal family counterpart as well as whats happeningco in academia and at the state level. We need to get a handle on the science and Health Impacts and we will work across the federal state and local agencies as well in academia to ensure we are competitive and the 170 million will go a long way. Th thank you mr. Chairman thank you. Senator hoeven. Thank you t mr. Chairman. Recently the congress, good to see youee and thanks for being here. Recently the congress voted on a bipartisan basis to overturn the put forward by the by demonstration and shortly thereafter a the judge issued a preliminary injunction that affects 24 states including my state of north dakota stating the new rules. Given that the epa is in front of the Supreme Court and is likely to provide clarity as to what epas authority is over states and landowners with regard to rate leading the waters of the u. S. Doesnt make sense to put a nationwide paws on your rule until the Supreme Court has ruled in that case . Where we have seen those 2624 of wave in. We will be implementing it on the regime. The states that dont have a stay in place we will continue to move forward and we do believe number one i agree with the agriculturall industry and i appreciate you. Well you know been outsourced and you have seen our concerns. Guess i have and what we are attempting to do was to take those concerned to match them with the laws that we are required to follow and they codified a number of exclusions that we are really proud of that many of the Egg Committee asked us to do. Unfortunately in the states where that stays in place and we go back to 2015 those exemptions and exclusions are notmp as cler andla available to our community but we will continue to work around that. I think the case will provide clarity and all the questions that we have that we have. The good news is we wont be starting from scratch. We have will be starting with the rule we put in place at some states have state will take the case and adjust the role and will be able to move forward and wont be starting two days behind. They just want to say the to previous demonstrations rule was vacated so we felt compelled to move forward and engage with their agriculture committees to try to put a durable rule in place that will provide clarity and codified these exclusions and exemptions that we attempt to move forward with. Send the current rule doesnt do that in you recognize the congress on a bipartisan basis voted against the rule. I acknowledge three or four demonstrationsmu multiple courts have weighed in the Supreme Court is weighted and no one has ever been pleased and i recognize that. I will say we did our level best to learn from all of what we see in the past that the court is overruled. It should provide clarity that we are very concerned about protecting private property rights. Also i want to ask you about the rule. The epa existing epa regulatory rule and your own study indicates the rule that you have in place prior to issuing this new rule has the mercury emissions below levels of concern and is reduced to two below levels of concern from a Public Health standpoint and thats your own determination so why are you proposing new rules to put additional burdens on electric plants when we very much need that electricity . I think we need to take a look at the necessary aspect of that rule but we came to the conclusion that there needed to be further reduction of mercury to protect human health and we also took a look at and i believe many of the Power Sector Industries would agree that the control technologies that exist to control mercury to the levels would like to see to protect Public Health exist in a costeffective way. Many of them have various aspects of those technologieshnn their plan. They believe following the law and following the science and a costeffective way we can continue to drive mercury emissions down to protect Public Health. The whole point is yourr own study shows we are already doing that and now you are adding additional regulation and cost of coalfired electric Industries Working to capture and restore co2 which we are doing in our state. The industry is undertaking investmentme to capture those emissions and address them and now co2 so you are adding Regulatory Burden at a time when they are investing in working to take baseload to the grid which is very much needed very much saving capture co2 as well. Im going to give you another example in ask you to respond. We now are looking at cole and trying to apply the exact same standardsly to both when they ae very different. So we need you to work with our industry to make these investments to capture the very emissions that you like co2 that you want to see captured and stored. Youve got to work with the industry work with industry to want that to happen. You are up liberated terms of having to work with the industry which had think would have done a fairly good job of that in many big samples youve cited north dakota is doing aes good b and pursuing those advanced technologies. I think youi and i are singing from a similar sheet of music which is these technologies that are being deployed in many of our states do have a lot of cobenefits which proves we can drive this pollution down. We have so Many Industries that are lagging behind. We would like for them to pursue some of the costeffective technologies like advanced mercury scrubbing technology to ensure the industry is keeping pace and a unified level. We are already capturing millions of tons of co2 but we need help and regulatory certainty in order to keep doing that and we need more of it. Thats why we are working hard and this is something ive spoken with the industry about at length for the last year and a half to two years. This is why we are putting all of our rolls out together with the industry hasas asked for the to be bundled so they can look at all of a the impacts and the potential benefits froml advand technology and make those longerterm investments. What the epa has pledged pledges we put these rules altogether and thats what we have done. Thank you. Senator van hollen. Thank you mr. Chairman and mr. Administrator gate great to see in your team headed and let me start with a thank you but i want to thank you and your team for keeping me and my team regularly apprised of the progress on the implementation of the greenhouse reduction. As you know this is something ive worked on for well over a decade starting during my time in the house of representatives which we then called it the green brain. Senator markey and i introduced the climate Bank Legislation and we are pleased to see the president embrace it and now obviously we are in the implementation which is critical that it be successful. So thank you for this consultations. They just want to affirm we are on the sameff page with respecto gold. Number one to achieve the greenhouse emissions that were allocated and targeted for this particular fund. Number two to ensure it has a Multiplier Effect. The idea is that this will be matched by private sector and other funds that we have up to a fivetime Multiplier Effect and that would ensure sustainability which is another key factor. This is not a pot of money for Grant Funding where you turn around one day and itst all ge and forth and importantly we make sure the funds are invested in underserved communities as part of this transition to clean energy economy. I just want your insurance assurance that you are committed to it. Absolutely and i want to take the time to thank you and your team and senator and marking others. A half a billion dollars is a lot of money. We need to have that Multiplier Effect so we need to ensure we have programs in place that can be leveraged by those who invest as their day jobs and we also want to ensure that every Single Person in this country benefits from it. We share those goals and they have enjoyed the conversations with your team. Our product ism. Better becausef our conversations. I appreciate that in my view is this can be most affected by creating at most a few National Networks that have to be national in scope that include existing green banks but also cdfi and other lenders. We want to make sure we have that ability to coordinate because we do want to be able to come to you a couple of years from now on say nay how are we doing in terms of her green house reduction how are we doing in terms of meeting our goal of ensuring low income communities are participating. That is much better achieved by having at least a National Network thats coordinating all of this. Just another thank you to get the epa to adopt the air pollution Good Neighbor rule because we received lots of air pollution from other states into ourou air so i just thank you fr moving forward on that. Let me talk recently about the river Wastewater Infrastructure. As you know the maryland senators are congressional delegation objected to the proposal to transfer some of the wastewater for the East Palestineea derailment through e back river plant in baltimore. Im glad that plan did not go forward. The reason as you know. Back back river planets have a history of problems itself and we did want to d take additional risk that more pollution would enter our waterways as result of the contaminated water. That said we are continuing to work on back river and obviously the forms of the bipartisan at the structure bill for the Revolving Fund are important. But i just asked for your commitment today mr. Administrator that you work with us on back river because that has had a series of problems and we want to make sure we work in partnership with in your team to correct them. Absolutely you have my commitment and our team is playing close attention to that and ive actually talked to about that particular facility so you have our commitment. Thank you. Its an ongoing project as you know. Let me now turn to the Chesapeake Bay in the epa program. Very gratifyingif to see the administration requested the full authorization of 92 million. This is an ongoing and urgent priority for our region and i would argue very important for the country as well as the nations largest estuary. I am also pleased with the current proposed settlement to the lawsuit that was brought to ensure enforcement of the goals to clean c up the bay. As you know unfortunately we are falling short of the target. We had a plan to try to achieve the reductions in what we call the maximumm daily load. We are not hitting that target. Is vital we reestablish aggressive pollution targets and dates and i do think this proposed settlement which i expect will be finalized shortly will help accomplish that. If you could just comment on why this is important. I think this is a multistate, the Chesapeake Bay obviously the watershed encompasses many states including pennsylvania. Its no secret weve been concerned about pollution coming down the river and part of this settlement is designed to address that the their greater force me. Can you talk about the epas commitment to making sure that this settlement is enforced assuming it goes forward . Absolutely and i would say i proudly served as the current chair of the Chesapeake Bay council and have been enjoying the engagement and look forward to engaging in multistate bodies. Once the settlement is achieved and hopefully we will get the resources we are requesting in this budget and i think we can effectively execute on the settlement but also enhance our engagement with their agriculture committees and others who are contributing in a negative way to chesapeake day. We also had a meeting to recalibrate those 2025 w goal settled im committed. Im chairing the executive council and im committed to recalibrating and committed to bring us all together to ensure we have restore the health and vibrancy of the Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Minister thank you. It requires resources, yes but it also requires a political commitment from the federal government so thank you. Thank you senator and we are going to try to do a speed round with questions that you can feel free to givet answers to in way or dashing to a vote thats currently underway. So here we go. Can i have your assurance that any permitting form you support willig not allow higher levels f toxins to be released in frontline committees . Yes. Said thank you and does that include the permitting up any new socalled chemical recycling facilities that give off significant toxins that might increase frontline committees . And away you will see both of those is our technical vice to the legislation obviously will weigh in as mightily as we can. In the Technical Advice we providee to congress we will be sure to select those things because they are important to us. Is one of w the issues ill e paying close attentionnt to an ally have your support and how we allow prescribed fires will also beingng very strong regardg generalized 2. 5 pollution. Then i guess, we can do both. I well have more questions for the record. Let me turn it over to my colleague from alaska. Thank you. Administrator regan senator capito has raised the issue about epas classics Wells Program for carbon sequestration. Somethingg that alaska is obviously very interested in. We have had a strong commitment to responsible stewardship and we have geological potential so we look at this with a real opportunity. I have expressed some concern again about the pace of processing the individual permits. I just want to know that you also view the agency classics Wells Program as administrative priority. I do, yes. I look forward to working with you on that. Veryin quickly we know gb is moving forward with new standards on light and medium duty vehicles and heavy duty truck emissions. A prettyin aggressive timeline d a fact even more aggressive than person bidens 50 of new cars sold by 2030. We all recognize these rules were higher significant increase in minerals needed to supply the end does the epa conduct a Needs Assessment on the amount of minerals that would be required tond move forward on that . We are cognitive of the need and cognitive of the broader federaler family approach to minerals and domestic manufacturing and the tax incentives and the like. Our rules are technology standards. You can rest assured the family federal goals resulting will be taken as we move forward. We not only need the minerals but they willil have to do moreo promote efficiencies and deal with the permitting issue. Something we are talking about on a bipartisan basisbo and lasy and it should be the real easy one i appreciate the progress we have made on our specific issues. I would like to again encourage that we have set quarterly calls withth senior staff from the agency. The college to all things alaska call. And i would like to have your commitmenter to have a teammaten ank quarterly basis. Absolutely. Thank you very much in mr. Chairman thank you very much. You have until the close of business on may 17 of 2023 and administrators regan is covered ave huge range of topics and im sure there will be followup questions to thank you for your service to our country and with that this hearing is adjourned. Thanknk you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] come back to washington journal. Im joined by some 70 the cofounder and executive director demand c justice. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having me