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 c