Beyond tax policy and fiscal policy as it relates to economic growth in the United States, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt believes the greatest impediment the country has seen to economic growth in the past several years is regulatory uncertainty.
According to Pruitt, those that are regulated often don’t know what’s expected of them or how to allocate resources.
“And when they start the process to allocate resources to comply with the rule, sometimes those rules change midstream, or they’re overturned throughout their action. That needs to change,” Pruitt said, addressing delegates at the recent CERAWeek by IHS Markit.
“Newly confirmed as the 14th administrator of the EPA, his [Pruitt’s] leadership, and direct engagement will play a key role in shaping our energy and environmental future,” noted CERAWeek by IHS Markit Chairman Dr. Daniel Yergin.
Pruitt said under his leadership, he is committed to making sure stakeholders in the marketplace understand what’s expected of them “so that they can get resources, invest and see growth occur in this country.”
“And to respect the rule of law,” he added. “That’s something we’re going to be committed to at the EPA.”
Pruitt recognizes there is “much work to do” to fulfill that commitment, citing more than 1,300 current superfund sites across the country that need remediation.
“Some of them have been on the list for three to four decades: Butte, Montana; the Port of Portland; East Chicago,” he said. “These are areas of our country where we need to have a focus at the EPA to remediate those areas where jobs can be created and communities can be restored.”
Attainment issues are also among the EPA’s priorities, Pruitt said.
“Right now in this country, we’re at 40-percent nonattainment, with roughly 122 million people in nonattainment zones alone,” he said, stressing more must be done to assure states and counties of better outcomes in air quality under existing standards before regulators try to “ratchet down standards” even farther.
“I want the states to see the EPA as a friend and a partner, not as an adversary,” he said.
Regarding how regulatory overreach came about, Pruitt believes it was due to a disregard for process and rule of law in achieving good outcomes for air and water.
“The statutes are pretty clear about what a state can do or what’s expected of industry,” he said. “You had actions being taken by an agency, in this case the EPA, that enlarged or reimagined those statutes, and that led to lawsuits.”
Regulators have often delayed making decisions regarding permitting, he added.
“Or the decision is made 8, 9, 10 or 11 years from now. That’s not a decision because at that point the technology has changed, the capital has gone away,” Pruitt said. “That has to change.”
Pruitt added that in recent years the EPA has been “a poster child representing that type of approach.”
“There is much work to be done,” he reiterated. “It’s exciting work to provide pro-environmental, pro-growth types of outcomes to our country, and we need to have an attitude that we can achieve this.”
Describing himself as “a baseball guy,” Pruitt quoted Major League Baseball legend Yogi Berra as saying, “‘The future ain’t what it used to be. ’
“I can tell you, in respect to how we’re going to do business in the EPA, respecting process, respecting rule of law, making sure that we engage in active partnership with the states through cooperative federalism to achieve environmental outcomes that serve our people — the future ain’t what it used to be at the EPA,” Pruitt concluded. “And I look forward to leading the way.”
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