EPA Releases Plans for Regulatory Reform

 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its final report identifying a number of regulations that it will target for modification or elimination in response to Executive Order 13563. The EPA’s report discusses 35 planned regulatory reviews in five main environmental areas.

 

Executive Order 13563, which was signed by President Obama in January 2011, required all Federal agencies to review their existing regulations and modify or rescind regulations that are “obsolete, unnecessary, unjustified, excessively burdensome, or counterproductive.” 

The EPA focused on four broad initiatives: electronic reporting, improved transparency, innovative compliance approaches, and integrated problem-solving, to generate its list of regulations for review. The result is a list of 35 planned regulatory reviews in five main environmental areas and generally:

Air

Clean Air Act (CAA) Title V Permit programs

Equipment leak detection and repair

Gasoline and diesel regulations

Multiple air pollutants: coordinating emission reduction regulations

New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) reviews and revisions under the CAA

NSPS for grain elevators, amendments

State Implementation Plan (SIP) process

Vehicle fuel vapor recovery systems

Vehicle regulations

Pesticides

Certification of pesticide applicators

Export notification for chemicals and pesticides

Integrated pesticide registration reviews

Toxic Substances

Electronic online reporting of health and safety data under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA); and Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)

Modern science and technology methods in the chemical regulation arena

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) reforms

Quick changes to some TSCA reporting requirements

Threshold planning quantities (TPQs) for solids in solution

Waste

E-Manifest

Electronic hazardous waste Site ID form

Hazardous waste requirements for retail products

National Priorities List rules

Water

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and integrated planning for wet weather infrastructure investments

Consumer confidence reports for primary drinking water regulations

Contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements

National primary drinking water regulations - Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment

National primary drinking water regulations for lead and copper

Reporting requirements under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA)

Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) and peak flow wet weather discharges

Water quality standard regulations

Water quality trading

Generally

The costs of regulations

Innovative technology

Regulatory certainty for farmers

Section 610 reviews

Of the regulations slated for review, 16 are marked for early action, meaning the EPA “intends to take a specific step toward modifying, streamlining, expanding, or repealing a regulation or related program” in 2011. The remaining 19 actions will require review to determine if revisions are needed.

The EPA's plan creates a cycle of five-year regulatory reviews. Each cycle will begin with a call for nominations of regulations to review, affording the public an opportunity to suggest reforms. The EPA will then examine selected regulations and change them if necessary.

This post was authored by GLLF staff attorney Emily Kelchen.