Anniversary of his agency. Admin. Wheeler the air quality is much improved. The air is much cleaner than it was decades ago. Today, President Trump holds a campaign trail admin. Wheeler our air and our Water Quality is its core mission. Over the past 50 years, the agency has expanded beyond the core mission. Too bureaucratic and burdensome, which negatively impacts Economic Growth. , i Obama Administration served as the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding the epa. During those years, i found myself constantly reminded that administration does not does not take a bigger bureaucracy to clean up our environment. Our tax dollars are much better spent replacing a Diesel Engine, an old Diesel Engine on a school bus rather than paying for another bureaucrat in washington, d. C. Thankfully, the Trump Administration has adopted a similar albaghdadi reforecast the agency, a similar outlook and reforecast the agency and refocused the agency. We have an epa that no longer shuns those they regulate. Whether they come or rather, they are working cooperatively to ensure we have a healthier environment while not holding back our economy or our way of life. Taking the helm, administrator Andrew Wheeler has implemented a great vision for the next 50 years of the epa. He is committed to ensuring the agency focuses on a primary mission. He is challenged the agency to make better use of resources that have suffered from collusion and been left behind. He has committed to changing the way the agency works to help these Community Prosper these committees prosper. This is administrator wheelers second stand. Heap second stint. In between his tors, he worked at the private sector as a top staffer on the Senate Environment and public works committee. The robust experience is a central to handling is job asal to handling the well as those unexpected challenges we know all too well. 2020 is a year of the unexpected. Administrator wheeler and his team at epa have been up to the task. Response to the covid pandemic has been a whole of government approach including the accelerated epa approval process, which has cut the average approval time of disinfectants from four months to four weeks. Prior to march 5, the number of 60. Approved products was there are now approximately 475 products. An amazing response and a testament to the leadership at epa. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming ted the Nixon Library in our incredible Southern California environment, epa administrator, Andrew Wheeler. [applause] admin. Wheeler thank you very much. Good afternoon. It is a privilege and an honor to be here at the Nixon Library to talk about the federal governments role in Environmental Protection during the next 50 years. I just want to stop a second and soak in the library. What a beautiful place to be to commemorate the 50th anniversary of epa. I want to thank the congressman for your remarks. Thank you to jim byron and the Nixon Library and Foundation Board and staff for making this day possible. And to all the other distinguished guests, thank you for being here and thank you for the work you are doing to help this country and your communities become savior become safer, healthier places to live. Let me start by saying something that should be familiar. Americas environment today is cleaner than it has ever been in our lifetimes. [applause] it got that way in large part because of president Richard Nixon who in 1970 created the Environmental Protection agency and signed into law the Clean Air Act. Later this year, the epa will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. So today, it is an important opportunity for me as the epas 15th administrator to celebrate the things that have worked well for this countrys environment and look for ways to improve environmental outcomes. The Clean Air Act and the clean water act, which were both enacted in nixons first term have become the foundational environmental statutes to guide epas mission to protect human health and the environment. Epasthe early 1970s, job has been pretty straightforward, clean up america. The agency has done just that. Lead gasoline and lead based paint were still in common use. Asbestos was considered not dangerous. All three of those hazards are largely banned from commerce as well as hundreds of other dangerous chemicals and compounds. The epa s mission has been straightforward. Type human health and the environment. Doing this ensures all americans regardless of their zip code have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and clean land to live, work and play upon. Under President Trump, p have done this well if not better than any recent administration. During the first three years of the Trump Administration, air pollution in this country fails percent country fell 7 . Last year, the epa delisted 27 superfund sites. The Agency Programs have contributed more than 40 billion to clean Water Infrastructure investment during President Trumps first term. This is great news and like most great news, you rarely read about it in the press. Our country, which has received some of the most exceptional, natural and environmental gifts to a human society, has shown a can have great environmental outcomes and Economic Growth when it strives to. The reason these great things happen is the development of a political consensus on environmental policy and the will of the american people. Legislation like the Clean Air Act, the clean water act, the 1990 clean act amendments, the Safe Drinking Water amendments all passed with bipartisan support and with president s of a Different Party than the Party Controlling congress. For much of the latter part of the 20th century, there was bipartisan understanding. Some of it was caption in legislation and some with established practice. These principles formed a consensus on how the federal government did its job in protecting the environment. President trump recognized this consent is when he asked me to take over the agency in 2018. His directions were straightforward. He said i want you to continue to clean up the air, continue cleaning up our water and continue to deregulate to create more jobs for the American Public. He knew that we could do all three at the same time. So do i. I am sure all of you do as well. Unfortunately in the past decade or so, some members of former administrations and progressives in congress have elevated single Issue Advocacy in many cases focused just on Climate Change to virtue signal to foreign capitals. Over the interest of communities within their own country. Communities deserve better than this. In the recent past, the epa has forgotten important parts of its mission. It is my belief we misdirect a lot of resources and can do a better job helping communities across this country. With someere we are misdirected policies and misused resources and a more partisan political environment. We won epa for the next 50 years we want epa for the next 50 years, how do we get to where we want to be . One way to do this and i have spent more than 25 years thing ut this album is to fit this problem is to focus on communities has focused on helping communities in more copperheads of mentor. Communities that deal with the worst pollution tend to be low income and minority and phase all the problems that need solving. One of the Biggest Challenges is the threat to tear down silos to be more effective in addressing the environment of burdens committees face. We must do this because the current lack of effectiveness has contributed to some very perverse environmental outcomes and resulted in a lot of unintended consequences. Going forward as William Shakespeare wrote, see first that the design is wise and just. And ascertain, pursue it resolutely. Because communities and political leaders will struggle with where to put limited resources, they tend to focus on the squeaky wheel. An environmental inspector tells them they have to get them back they have to get back meanwhile, there is still lead in the water pipes in their schools, which goes ignored. Why was a staff director and 8 while i was a staff director in the senate, we took testimony from mayor hall in michigan. That community was 90 africanamerican. Poverty rates were very high. The town had not recovered from the deindustrialization of the 1970s. Was ayors Message Program was telling her the city applied for epa grants, many old, abandoned facilities could it cleaned up and jobs could be created. Epas office told her that the harbor was in a nonattainment zone and she could not bring new businesses into the city because they are not going to get new permits. How was Benton Harbor going to use his experience use its experience if no new businesses could be built . It is a good question and one that has remain unanswered. Experiencen harbors as similar to the community i grew up in north of cincinnati. The neighboring town of hamilton during the 19th and 20th centuries was one of the most important manufacturers of paper, bank vaults as well as Machine Tools and railroad switches. As deindustrialization overtook hamilton, its Economic Health weakened, jobs were eliminated and businesses closed down. Giving behind abandoned buildings, polluted industrial sites and the people who had set the roots down. New businesses coming into southwestern ohio did not return to hamilton. They went to the suburbs. They went to the farmland. They went where the farmland was cheaper and less pollution, which allowed commercial investments to be made easier and which created its environmental costs as farmland was turned into businesses and housing instead of looking at the older sections of the town. Sites epa has responsibility for our in some of the most disadvantaged communities. I will point out the truism. Neglect is a form of harm. It is not fair for these communities to be abandoned just because they do not have enough political power to stop the neglect. So where does this put us as a country in 2020 . The truth is this country is facing a lot of environmental and social blooms that have not been social problems that have not been dealt with the right way. While the focused of the next 50 years should not be like the last 50, but it should be informed by the last 50. Many towns and cities in the United States are using the same Water Infrastructure they used for over 100 years. Many schools used lead water pipes long after such pipes were banned from new buildings. Views arean public Pesticide Program for the lens of the lawyers who advertise on television. Program which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year has become focused on process rather than project completion. If you look for answers on why environmental injustice takes place today, one should start by asking why the most under resourced and economically honorable communities in this country are the places with the most pollution. It is not happenstance nor a coincidence. I would like to be able to say communities like Benton Harbor and hamilton and thousands of other communities that need help in this country have been helped by improved environmental governance the last 20 years. Most of them have not. Benton harbors poverty rate has risen. Iniltons population peaked 1960 and has fallen ever since. These issues are challenging and would be difficult for any administration in office. They would be easier to solve if people in power were more aware of the consequences of poor environmental policies. Having worked in washington for many years, i have gotten used to policy arguments being divorced from good economic outcomes. When it comes to environment a policy being divorced from Good Environmental outcomes, the situation becomes much harder to accept. If youve ever wondered why republicans can get upset sometimes, here are some reasons. It is disappointing to see governors on the east coast such as Governor Cuomo unilaterally block pipelines that would take natural dennis from pennsylvania today natural gas from pennsylvania to new york and to england. These poor choices subject americans to imports from natural gas from places like russia even in the face of evidence that u. S. Natural gas has a much cleaner emissions profile. Governor cuomo is doing this in the name of Climate Change. The Carbon Footprint of natural gas from pennsylvania to new england for a pipeline is much smaller than transporting natural dennis halfway across the world natural gas halfway across the world. It also forces vermont and the main to use more wood to heat their homes, which creates very poor local air quality. There are many examples of poor environmental outcomes in california despite its environmental reputation. It should go without saying dumping sewage into San Francisco bay without disinfection, without any chemical or biological treatment is a bad idea. That is what has been happening for years against federal law. Just last month, the rolling blackouts created by the latest electricity crisis, the result of policies against power plants being fueled by natural gas, spilled 50,000 gallons of raw sewage into the oakland estuary when backup wastewater pumps failed. As state policymakers push more renewables onto the grid at times of the day when renewables are not available, these environmental accidents will happen more often. Words withconfusing actions and treating empty symbolism over doing a good job, we can focus our attention and resources on helping communities help themselves. Doing this will strengthen this country from its foundation up and start to solve the environmental problems of tomorrow. We can do a lot of good if the federal government through Congress Puts resources to work with a fierce focus on Community Driven environmentalism that promotes Community Revitalization on a grade of scare on a greater scale. Han all ofdo more t the rhetoric. No one agency can solve all of our problems. I believe the environmental policy establishment has missed a lot of opportunities in the past several decades. Over the next four years, the Trump Administrations epa is going to reorganize how it approaches communities so it can take action and address the range of Environmental Issues that need to be addressed for people and places. Environmental protection is the forerunner, the prerequisite for Economic Growth and job creation. If we can solve this problem in the way i am talking about, we can give Many Americans a much Better Future in the next 50 years. A new focus on Community Driven environmentalism is the best opportunity in a generation to solve the Environmental Justice issues we face today. Wherefocus on communities passed industrial pollution has had a negative impact on the wellbeing of people and local economies, the epa can transform itself into a much better version of government with benefits that last for many administrations. In President Trumps second term, we will help communities across this country take control and reshape themselves through the following five priorities. Create a Community Driven environmentalism that promotes Community Revitalization. Two, by meeting the 21st century demands for water. Three, reimagining superfund as a project oriented program. Four, reforming the permitting process to empower the states. Finally, creating a holistic Pesticide Program for the future. These communities i have mentioned have been shaped in negative ways by their history of pollution. Winston churchill once said reshape our buildings, thereafter they shape us. He was talking about the house of commons, which had been damaged in world war ii and there were questions about whether it should be rebuilt. Churchill recommended the comments be the comments be renovated to the previous greatness. That is what we are going to be doing across this great country. For communities traditionally, the epa is focused on Environmental Issues that only look at air, water and land separately. States and local communities end up doing the same thing because they mirror the epa. We will change this. One area is to look at the grants program. Environmental justice issues air quality for example in each community at the same time and encourage those communities to do the same. Ince epas Program Began 1995, 1. 6 billion in grants have been spent to clean up contaminated sites and return properties to reductive to productively use. Communities participating have been able to attract an additional 33 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding after receiving the funds. As we move forward with our led action plans, that tear down the silos, there will be more rapid improvements to the quality of local projects. When combined with the opportunity zones created in the landmark 2017 trump tax bill, economic development, job creation environmental improvements can truly operate together at the same time. A study published last month found that opportunity zones, which have only been in 2018 havesince attracted 75 billion in investment, which has lifted one Million People out of poverty through job creation. While all the Economic Data is not available, it is possible opportunity zones are one of the biggest reasons black unemployment in this country fell to its lowest recorded levels in 2019. Potential450,000 brownfields opportunities waiting for cleanup and investment. We have cleaned up only 2000 since the Program Began. One other way we are going to help communities is by creating one consolidated Grant Program that combines several smaller grants from multiple programs. It will help focus local communities. It will help refocus the epa. There is scope to do a lot more. We can meet the 21st century demands on water i creating an integrated approach, an integrated planning approach using our loan program, our water reuse Action Program and our Trading Initiative to improve Water Quality and modernize the legal frameworks that have been around since the 19th century. Also important to note that over 40 of Water Utility workers across this country are eligible to retire today. We need to do a better job recruiting and training the water workforce for the 21st century, particularly with threats to the Water Utility industry. Threats from pandemics but also from cybersecurity and sabotage, which may be one of the biggest threats in the coming years. We can also reinvigorate the superfund program. Roughly 16 of the u. S. Population lives within three miles of a superfund site. That is over 15 million americans. Andhas allowed litigation bureaucracy to dictate the pace of projects instead of focusing on improving the environmental indicators and living sites to completion. We need to fully implement the recommendations of the 2018 task force and reimagine the approach to Cleanup Sites using the latest technologies and best practices. You may be familiar with the british tv series yes minister where politicians do battle with the british Civil Service, which once things to stay the same. The Civil Service usually wins. During one episode, senior Civil Servant told a minister we do not measure our success by results but by activity. Considerable and productive. That has become the historic problem for the superfund program. It is one we can solve. We have focused too much on the activity at a superfund site instead of on the success of getting the sites cleaned up and returned to productive use. We helped President Trump implement the new regulations with the goal of reviewing federal permits within two years. Because of this, new permit bottlenecks will be at the state levels implementing the federal program. Opportunity toe provide Technical Assistance and support timely permit reviews by the states. 96 of water permitting authorities have been delegated to the states and 48 of the states have been delegated to the air program. Going forward when we renew programs, we will not just be looking at their enforcement statistics. Will also begin looking at their permitting programs and their permitting statistics as well. Way wealso improve the handle pesticide regulation. We do a good job approving pesticides on an individual basis. We have not excelled in explaining to the public our holistic approach to pesticide management. The media and the courts tend to view our individual decisions in a oneoff fashion, which has left the American Public uninformed on our sciencebased processes. We will take into account biotech advances and better examinations of new active ingredients. Just this week, we have announced a proposed rule that will remove expensive regulation of gene edited plant protections. We will safeguard pollinators. We can decrease reliance on animal testing to a point where no animal testing will be taking place by 2035. Im happy to say the current epa leadership is already seizing the moment. As i said before, the focus of the next 50 years cannot be like the last 50. This agency has proven it can protect human health and the environment. But it has not accomplished reaching the goals of fairness and environmental outcomes this country must achieve if it wants American Communities to become better, healthier places to live. Here are five things the epa is doing, five new pillars that have largely gone unnoticed by the public that are changing the way the agency operates today. We are creating costbenefit rules for every statute the epa uses. We are creating science transparency rules that are applied consistently. We have already published new guidance procedures that brings all of our guidance documents to life. We have reorganized our regional offices that make it much easier for Community Members to interact with the agency. We have implemented a Management System known as the toyota system throughout the agency to improve the way we operate. Im making these changes, communities will be more empowered and able to take action to work in concert with the epa and not interact in a confrontational manner. The first pillar is our costbenefit rulemaking. Is the first time our agency will define how to calculate the cost and the benefits of proposed roles. The American Public deserves to know what the cost and benefits are for each of our rulemaking efforts. We are starting with the Clean Air Act, which will provide much better clarity to local communities, industry and stakeholders. We will implement a costbenefit regulation for all of our environmental statutes by 2022. Our second major pillar is science transparency. The American Public has a right to know the scientific justification behind a regulation. This will bring much needed sunlight into our regulatory process. Some people oppose it, calling it a secret science role. Those who oppose it want regulatory decisions to be made behind closed doors. They are the people who say trust as. We know what is best for you. I want to bring our environmental decision process out of the smokefilled back room. I cut my teeth working at epa in the 1990s on the community right to know program. I believe people have a right to know how our regulations are developed. The costbenefit and science transparency rules will go a long way in delivering that. After finalizing the transparency role, we will conduct a statute by statute rulemaking. On the guidance documents, the third pillar of agency change is an area where we have already made a lot of progress. The agency was criticized for not making guidance documents which had almost the force of law available for public review. The costs involved became a major barrier for anyone wanting to know how to improve their communities how to come into compliance with the environmental rules. Last year, we went through all of our guidance documents. Some dating back to 1970. We began putting all of them onto a searchable database. We now have all 10,000 of our guidance documents in a searchable database available to any member of the public. We also rescinded 1000 guidance documents. All of our guidance documents are available for anyone here to see. This is a huge change in procedures and perhaps the biggest change in generation. The fourth pillar is our reorganization of all 10 of our regional offices to mirror our headquarters structure. Offices have land, air and chemical divisions. This was a change needed for decades. The fifth pillar is implementing the Management System that tracks real metrics with which the agency can measure success or failure. There is a lot of good news in these changes. The best news is this. The problems i have highlighted are structural. When a problem is structural organizational, and agency can be changed. Until the Trump Administration, the epa was not tracking how long it took to complete a permit, grant process or state implementation plan. It had no meaningful or any meaningful task the agency had before it. When President Trump said he wanted all permits done within two years, we turn to the epa to decide how long it was taking us. We realize we were not tracking how long the process chuck. You cannot improve a process and let you know how long a process takes. Change. Tions do when they change, it is usually for the better. As i said at the beginning, epa data points to 2020 air quality as being the best on record. Here in california where the modern Movement Began and from where president nixon brought it to the rest of the country, it is important to acknowledge the roles states have in being laboratories for democracy and environmental policy. For environmental policy to work nationally, the federal government and states must work as partners. To do this involves a new vision and for a country searching for a new consensus on the environment as well as many other things, this can seem tough. I believe we can find a new consensus if we strive to. Challenge wasthe in the environment, Economic Policy and world difficult of and were difficult to overcome. Many have been overcome and conquered. The issues are different but still difficult. I believe by focusing epa towards communities in the coming years, our agency can change the future for people who have been left behind simply for living in polluted places. If there is one thing we all have in common as americans as we all live in communities. We are a nation made up of communities. Communities are the foundation of this nation, not the other way around. If we can do the work before us, break down the silos between us as an agency and elsewhere, we can protect the places we love and bring back the places that have been hurt by pollution and make them even better than they were before. I see the epa beginning the second halfcentury with big challenges but ones that can be overcome with the same skill and tenacity that helped this agency and country overcome the challenges of the last 50 years. Want to thank the Nixon Library. I hope everyone can support our agency as we work to deliver this vision of a great environmental future for all americans regardless of where they live. I would like to end on a personal note. I come from a family that was always politically active. Memory was inical 1972 when i was seven years old watching the election returns for president nixon. My mother, who was a single parent, widowed, was very interested in president nixon. I watched the tv returns and wrote down the vote tallies on a statebystate basis and took them to her wherever she was to show her how he was doing. I was also tracking the governor in west virginia. My grandmother worked for him. If you lost, she would lose her job. I did not understand the Electoral College at the time. My brother was always my political advisor throughout my life my mother was always my political advisor threat my life. This past sunday would have been her 88th birthday. I want to thank the library because i know she is proud of the fact i am here at the Nixon Library today. Thank you all very much. [applause] thank you, administrator wheeler. I speak on behalf of of the board of directors of the Nixon Foundation to say perhaps this was a bit of a homecoming for you as well. The administrator has agreed to take photos with all of you. He wants to meet all of you in a socially distanced photo line. We invite you to join us, relax and cool off and thank you very much for coming here today. If you make your way to your left, the ladies in red jackets and the gentleman in the navy codes will show you where you need to go. Thank you for being here today. Today, the Harvard Kennedy Schools Institute of politics hosts a virginal a virtual discussion on the campaign 2020 campaign. Live coverage begins at 6 00 p. M. On cspan. Our campaign 2020 coverage continues with candidates campaigning and debating. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Today, President Trump holds a Campaign Rally in latrobe, pennsylvania. Watch live at 7 00 p. M. On cspan. Three live with the cspan radio app. The contenders, about the men who ran for the presidency and lost but changed political history. Tonight, minnesota senator and Vice President hubert humphrey. The contenders, this week at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Aflcio president Richard Trumka spoke to reporters about the economy, the Labor Movement and the president ial campaign. This event was hosted by the Christian Science monitor. All right. Hello, everybody. I am the Washington Bureau chief of the Christian Science monitor. Our guest is Richard Trumka, president of the aflcio, which is the nations largest federation of labor unions. This is his 12th appearance at the
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