Administrator Michael Regan, Remarks for ECOS Spring Meeting, As Prepared For Delivery

March 16, 2021

Thank you, Pat, for that introduction. You are doing great work in Pennsylvania, and I'm looking forward to working together.

It's good to be here with you all. There are many familiar faces from my last four years as DEQ Secretary in my home state of North Carolina.

That role afforded me a front row seat to the importance of the federal and state relationship - and what a difference transparency, respect, and an open dialogue can make.

As some of you may know, I got my start at EPA more than 20 years ago. I spent 10 years under presidents of both parties. As a national program manager back then, I worked with state leaders, industry, and local communities to design practical solutions to some of our most pressing environmental challenges.

I know firsthand how actions from EPA can help or hurt local efforts, and how critical transparent communication and a close working relationship is to our shared success.

Throughout my career, I've learned if you want to address complex challenges, you must be able to see them from all sides. You must be willing to put yourself in other people's shoes. As someone who has been in your shoes, this is the approach I will take as administrator.

You have my word that EPA is going to actively engage with and listen to states. The reasons for that couldn't be clearer.

First, state and local governments know their own communities better than the federal government ever could.

Second, our work is fundamental to improving people's lives, but the challenges we face are more urgent than ever before. The strength of our partnership will determine whether we rise to meet today's challenges and those that lie ahead.

We have good reason to be optimistic.

Last month, when millions of Texans were facing historic power outages and drinking water shortages, EPA deployed teams of drinking water analysts and mobile labs to Houston, Fort Worth, and San Antonio to test water for bacteria and help ensure people's taps could flow with safe drinking water. EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have a history working together after disasters, and we were glad to support them.

And recently, EPA joined with local partners in Oregon to award the largest single water infrastructure loan ever issued by the agency. The loan will help improve drinking water quality and reliability for nearly 1 million people by better controlling contaminants and lead while strengthening the system's climate resiliency. On top of that, the project is expected to create more than 4,000 much-needed jobs.

Yes, the heart of our work is about protecting public health and the environment. There will be certain baseline standards we're going to expect states to meet to ensure we're fulfilling that responsibility. But the best way to create sustainable, durable policy is to work hand in hand as you meet those statutory obligations on behalf of the American people.

I want to acknowledge the pressure you've all been under throughout this pandemic, personally and professionally, and the challenges you've had to face.

As state officials, so many of you are trying to reconcile shrinking state budgets with growing need.

You've been on the ground - on the frontlines, sustaining critical environmental protection efforts in your states while also keeping your workforce safe and healthy. You've continued to do the work for your fellow Pennsylvanian, Marylander, South Carolinian, and Nebraskan, because the importance of protecting public health has never been clearer.

The pandemic has really brought home the importance of state and federal coordination - and the need to rely on one another for guidance and support.

As we look to rebuild from the pandemic, we can come out of this stronger, more resilient, and with an eye toward the future.

That's why President Biden has seized an opportunity to rebuild with the strongest call to climate action in our country's history.

President Biden has committed to meeting the urgent demands of climate change while empowering American workers and businesses to drive our nation toward a clean energy future. We've set an ambitious goal of getting to 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and putting the United States on the path to a net-zero economy by 2050.

Confronting climate change is the single best opportunity we have to strengthen our economy, to put people back to work, and to build a healthier, more equitable future.

Fortunately, President Biden is a leader who rejects the old argument that we have to pit environmental protection against economic prosperity. In fact, he believes - just as I do - the exact opposite. These values aren't mutually exclusive - they go hand in hand.

The President often says that when he hears climate change, he hears jobs. The Oregon water infrastructure announcement I mentioned earlier is just one example of that, but there are countless others, and with your partnership, there will be many more.

And make no mistake, underlying these priorities - and all of EPA's priorities - is a commitment to ensuring that science is respected, elevated, and put front and center in all our decisions.

At EPA, we believe that every person in the United States has the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthier life - no matter how much money they have in their pockets, the color of their skin, or their zip code.

Yet too many Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other people of color bear the highest burden of pollution. At the same time, they tend to suffer first and suffer worst from climate impacts. It's no coincidence that these same communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

I appreciate that Congress recently recognized EPA's critical role in addressing health disparities through the American Rescue Plan. The new law provides $50 million for state and local environmental justice programs and another $50 million to rebuild our nation's air quality monitoring network.

I'll be working closely with my team at EPA to find the best ways to use these much-needed resources, and I know our team will be working closely with you to identify activities like improving water infrastructure, cleaning-up Brownfield sites, training low-income and minority people in green jobs, and other opportunities that are best suited to your communities.

We recognize that in the last few years especially, many states have made significant advances - statutes in California, Illinois, and New York to direct climate-related resources to benefit underserved communities, a recent New Jersey law to address cumulative impacts in permitting, Florida's use of social vulnerability assessment in its Resilient Coastlines Program, the Texas emission events database developed in response to fenceline community concerns, and many others.

We're inspired by the work you're already doing and hopeful about the prospect in front of us to advance environmental justice in all our communities.

EPA is looking to the creativity and leadership provided through state efforts to shape our current ambitions for environmental justice, including the initiative to implement the Biden-Harris Administration's Justice40 Initiative.

We've set aside funds for providing technical assistance to states who want to use EPA's E.J. SCREEN or develop their own mapping tools to help local decision-makers and the public see where their communities may be overburdened by pollution.

EPA also reinitiated its State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement program, making financial resources available to states and other governmental partners to address environmental justice concerns.

And just last week, we announced EPA is building on its successful Brownfields job training program by investing $3.3 million in new funding for 18 job training grants. The organizations selected for funding plan to train approximately 900 individuals, with many of the graduates moving into environmental jobs in their communities.

We are really pleased that Pat McDonnell has made diversity and environmental justice one of his priorities as President of ECOS. As both states and the federal government work towards including racial equity and environmental justice within our policies and programs, there will be many opportunities to work closely and collaboratively together, and I look forward to doing so.

I want to spend a little time talking about PFAS, which I know is one of the key challenges you face in your states. I have been in your shoes. I have seen this problem up-close.

In North Carolina, we tackled PFAS in the Cape Fear River by following the science, following the law, and bringing industries together as stakeholders. It was one of the most complex issues I dealt with as Secretary, but I'm proud of the work we did to protect the health of North Carolinians.

There's no doubt that better coordination is needed to tackle this pervasive and persistent problem.

As many of you know, EPA took two key steps forward a few weeks ago.

We're moving ahead with the process of setting drinking water standards for two PFAS chemicals - PFOA and PFOS. You all have highlighted the importance of these standards for helping address the PFAS challenge, and this is an important step. At the same time, we all know that the problem goes beyond just PFOA and PFOS - something ECOS has consistently reinforced with EPA. I look forward to working with my team to evaluate additional chemicals, as supported by the best available science.

To understand and address the challenge of PFAS in drinking water, we must know which PFAS chemicals are present, how much, and where. To help, EPA also announced we're moving ahead with a proposal to monitor for 29 PFAS in drinking water. This monitoring will help complement sampling efforts in your states and create a transparent nationwide picture.

Taken together, these two actions will help us better understand and reduce the potential risks caused by these chemicals in communities across the country.

There is a lot of work ahead of us on this front. We're committed to a flexible and collaborative approach with states, tribes, water systems and local communities. We will pursue all avenues that we can while we are developing these rulemaking processes to give the proper signals to states on appropriate actions.

We've spent a lot of time talking about the importance of our relationship to one another. I know another important area for EPA and state collaboration is E-Enterprise, which is making transformative improvements in our efforts to cut red tape, enhance productivity, and meet our goals.

Leveraging each other's expertise is going to be critical to accomplishing the work ahead. I'm looking forward to reenergizing the collaboration reflected in E-Enterprise to foster greater trust among the regulated community, the public and co-regulators, streamline solutions, and achieve our shared mission of protecting public health and the environment.

I think we can all agree that every one of us has a stake in the health of our environment, the strength of our economy, the well-being of our communities, and the legacy we leave to the next generation.

And while those values may not unite all of us on every single question of policy, they've been the foundation of a successful partnership for the past 50 years. I look forward to building upon that foundation with you all to chart an even stronger partnership for the next 50.

Thank you.