Lawmaker Asks EPA Administrator Regan Point Blank What Would Happen If His Agency Was Repealed

3 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) questioned EPA Administrator Michael Regan about the importance of his agency.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Regan, let me just follow up on that, because I do

00:05think that there is a significant philosophical difference that was just surfaced in the colloquy

00:13between Mr. Palmer and yourself. There is no doubt that there is industry that wants

00:20more of a freedom to pollute without having environmental rules imposed against them.

00:27But your purpose is to defend the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water

00:36and have a safe working place. And I wonder if you would describe what the mission of

00:42the EPA is.

00:43Well, the mission of the EPA is to protect public health and the environment, look at

00:51cost-effective technologies to do so, and ensure that this country can remain globally

00:56competitive. And I do that in concert with State regulators in blue and red States,

01:02but also actively engage in industry to come up with the right solutions.

01:06And that is a mission that has been, for a lot of American history, a bipartisan one.

01:13It was under President Nixon that the EPA was first created, right?

01:16Correct.

01:18And so there is nothing that should be partisan about the pursuit of clean air, clean water,

01:24clean working conditions. Do you agree with that?

01:26I agree with that.

01:27Okay. I wonder, what is your perspective on what would happen if the proposals in the

01:40Project 2025 blueprint for a mega takeover of government were implemented? What would

01:47happen if all of the rules that they want to repeal at the EPA were repealed?

01:52Well, listen, I think when you look at the massive cuts that are being suggested, we

01:57won't get new pesticides, new registrants on the market. We will significantly hurt

02:02our agriculture industry, reducing the herbicides that we can get on the market. We won't clear

02:07all of the litigation that has tied our hands to get chemicals on the market that we rely

02:12on every day.

02:13Listen, we would have significant impacts to our water quality. Emerging contaminants

02:19like PFAS would run amok. We would continue to have lead-poisoned water all across the

02:25country. We would not be able to look at how to clean up brownfield sites and benefit not

02:31just from a health standpoint, but from the economic vitality and opportunity of cleaning

02:36up these blighted sites. The list just goes on and on. America needs a strong EPA.

02:43I remember when Donald Trump took out his Sharpie and purported to change the direction

02:51of a hurricane—I think it was Hurricane Dorian—back in 2019. But he basically said

02:58it was not going to hit the Florida coast, it was going to hit Alabama. And he did this

03:04without any consultation with the National Weather Service, or NOAA, where the National

03:09Weather Service is located. And then it created huge confusion and consternation.

03:14I mean, what would happen if we replaced professional, scientific, civil service management of agencies

03:25like the Weather Service or NOAA or the EPA with political flunkies, basically? People

03:34who are just willing to say whatever the president wants to say. What would that do

03:41to our ability to have effective public policy if science is something that could just be

03:45made up by a president?

03:48If we don't follow the science and have qualified people in these positions, Americans will

03:52die. We have a role to play, and we need to be able to predict the weather. We need to

03:57be able to respond to the weather. We need to be able to alert the public that if danger

04:02is coming their way, and once many of these communities are hit, whether it's a wildfire

04:06or a flood or a hurricane, we need to be able to go in and be activated to help bring those

04:12communities back to life. Whether it's Maui, Hawaii, or whether it's East Palestine, Ohio,

04:18or Jackson, Mississippi, when a city is hit, we need experts to come in and ensure that

04:23there's clean air and clean water.

04:25So how have you regarded the war on science and the war on public health that we saw during

04:33COVID-19? We saw on this committee when Dr. Fauci came the other day, we had members of

04:36this committee accusing Dr. Fauci of having created COVID-19 and profiting from it. How

04:45do you experience that attack on science in terms of your ability to get your work done?

04:50Well, you know, it's threatening reality and the facts. And what we've done under this

04:55administration is restore scientific integrity, which, by the way, industry, businesses, all

05:03of our economic partners applaud us for doing this. We're saving lives, and we're putting

05:08pragmatic, practical regulations in place so that we can provide many of our industries

05:13regulatory certainty. They need to have regulatory certainty so that they can make the proper

05:17investments.

05:18Would you say that the success of the EPA depends on the integrity of the science that

05:24goes into it, and you are threatened by the political science of the MAGA people who say,

05:30we want to dictate a political agenda to people who work for EPA or the Weather Service or

05:37NOAA?

05:38Politics of no party has any role in scientific integrity. And if we don't remain in a place

05:46where we're transparent and bolstering our scientific integrity, we will lose the trust

05:51of the public. Scientific integrity is the core, is at the core of EPA's mission to protect

05:57all people.

05:58Thank you very much for your hard work. And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back to you.

Lawmaker Asks EPA Administrator Regan Point Blank What Would Happen If His Agency Was Repealed

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