EPA Releases 2018 Year In Review Highlighting Agency Accomplishments And Environmental Progress Under President Trump & Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler

Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the 2018 Year in Review outlining major accomplishments and environmental progress during the Trump Administration.

“Over the past year, the Trump Administration has continued to deliver on its promise to provide greater regulatory certainty while protecting public health and the environment,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Over the past year, we finalized 13 major deregulatory actions, deleted all or part of 22 sites from Superfund’s National Priorities List — the largest number of deletions in one year since FY 2005 — and continued to safeguard our nation's water supply as well as make historic improvements in air quality. These represent a few of the many accomplishments the Agency achieved under President Trump's direction. America is on a path to a stronger, safer, and cleaner future.”

In 2018, EPA’s accomplishments include:

• Issuing Major Proposals Including the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, the SAFE Vehicles Rule, and the New Waters of the U.S. Definition
• Providing Greater Regulatory Certainty to States, Tribes, Localities, and the Regulated Community
• Streamlining the Effectiveness and Efficiency of EPA
• Launching Cross-Agency Initiatives to Improve Risk Communication on Emerging Contaminants and Vulnerable Populations
• Initiating Multiple Actions to Reduce Lead Exposure, Including Releasing the Federal Lead Action Plan 
• Improving  Enforcement Compliance and Assistance 
• Holding the Agency’s First-Ever PFAS National Leadership Summit and Inaugural Recycling Day Summit
• Leading International Environmental Efforts, Including First-Ever Articles to Prevent and Reduce Marine Litter in USMCA
• Ensuring Comprehensive and Coordinated Responses to Multiple Natural Disasters 

By the Numbers:

• REGULATORY REFORM: 13 deregulatory actions were finalized in 2018. To date, under President Trump, EPA has finalized 33 major deregulatory actions saving Americans almost $2B.
• AIR: EPA reported that, during President Trump’s first year in office, greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sources decreased by 2.7 percent.
• WATER: By the end of 2018, EPA closed seven WIFIA loans totaling nearly $2B to help finance over $4B for water infrastructure projects and create up to 6,000 jobs.
• LAND: EPA deleted all or part of 22 sites from Superfund’s National Priorities List in FY 2018 – the largest number of deletions in one year since FY 2005.
• CHEMICALS: After inheriting a “backlog” of 672 new chemical submissions pending review in January 2017, under President Trump, EPA aggressively worked to improve the review of new chemical submissions and, as a result, eliminated the initial backlog and reduced the number of cases pending review to 475 submissions by August 2018. EPA completed 99.7 percent of the 2,199 pesticide registration actions on-time, registered 23 new active ingredients and 147 new uses of existing pesticides, providing new tools to growers to meet their pest management needs.
• ENFORCEMENT: In FY 2018, EPA enforcement actions required the treatment, disposal, or elimination of 809 million pounds of pollutants and waste - almost twice as much as FY 2017. The Agency also entered into the largest settlement in the history of EPA’s enforcement of the Risk Management Program with the responsible party spending $150Mon major safety improvements.
• GRANTS: EPA awarded $4,451,520,905 in grants in FY 2018 including more than $63M million under the General Assistance Program, benefiting nearly all federally recognized tribes through awards to 500 tribal governments and approximately 25 intertribal consortia, $4.344M in State and Tribal Assistance Grants, and 37 environmental education grants totaling $3,306,760 in 32 states to 13 colleges and universities, 23 stakeholder organizations, and one tribal community.

Click here to read the full report: https://www.epa.gov/newsroom/epa-year-review-2018