Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said Friday that its reorganization of many offices will save $300 million annually and help the agency work more efficiently to protect the country’s air, land, and water.
“With these organizational improvements, we recommit to fulfilling all of our statutory obligations and exceptionally delivering on EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Zeldin said in a written statement. “This reorganization will bring much needed efficiencies to incorporate science into our rulemakings and sharply focus our work on providing the cleanest air, land, and water for our communities. It will also save at least $300 million annually for the American people.”
Zeldin’s announcement follows President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” which call for a “critical transformation” of the bureaucracy to “empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.”
The EPA will create as part of its reorganization the agency’s first Office of State Air Partnerships within the Office of Air and Radiation. It will focus on working with, and not against, state, local, and tribal permitting agencies so that these entities receive the same answer regardless of their location. The agency is also creating an Office of Clean Air Programs that will focus on expertise to ensure more transparency and harmony in regulatory development.
The environmental agency will also start an Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions (OASES) in the Office of the Administrator to align research and put science at the forefront of the agency’s rulemakings and assistance to states.
The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) will receive more than 130 scientific, technical, bioinformatic, and information technology experts to help with backlogs of 504 new chemicals in review that are beyond the required timeframes and more than 12,000 pesticide reviews that are also beyond their timelines.
The agency is also obtaining the tools to advance a PFAS, or Per- and polyfluoroalkyl, also known as “forever chemicals, as they do not break down in the environment. PFAS exposure has been linked serious health issues such as various cancers, reproductive issues, and more.
The reorganization at the EPA will allow the agency to streamline and improve the review of chemicals and pesticides.
The EPA expects that, when the reorganization is finalized, the agency will have employment levels roughly matching when President Ronald Reagan was in the White House.
In March, the EPA eliminated the Biden-Harris Environmental Justice (EJ) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) branches of the agency, which led to a reduction of 280 DEI and EJ employees and moved 175 employees to other offices.
One hundred days into Trump’s administration, Zeldin announced 100 environmental actions the agency took to “power the American comeback” under the 47th president.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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