EPA asks drillers, miners for advice on regulating them

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is asking miners, oil drillers and manufacturers to collaborate with the government on how to regulate their industries.

The EPA began its new "Smart Sectors" program with an inaugural meeting between agency staff and representatives of its regulated industries on Tuesday and a promise to work together to "develop sensible approaches that better protect the environment and public health."

The program, modeled after a similar 2003 initiative, follows Trump’s vow to end "job-killing regulations" and comes as the administration moves to revise Obama-era rules governing power plant emissions, methane leaks from oil wells and mining pollution. The meeting convened amid criticism that the agency has taken a pro-business tilt at the expense of environmental issues.

"When we consider American business as a partner, as opposed to an adversary, we can achieve better environmental outcomes," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a news release. "When industries and regulators better understand each other, the economy, public, and the environment all benefit."

Pruitt said the new program, run by EPA’s Office of Policy, "is designed to effectively engage business partners throughout the regulatory process. "The program is set to collaborate with 13 specific sectors, including agriculture, autos, chemical manufacturing, mining, oil and utilities.

Although the EPA says additional sectors may be added over time, right now, the program provides no formal role for environmental advocates and public health experts.

The EPA says the initiative’s sector-based, collaborative approach will lower compliance costs, drive "creative solutions" to environmental challenges, better protect the Earth and increase regulatory certainty.

While the "Smart Sectors" program may be a formal effort for EPA to regularly consult with the industries it regulates, Pruitt is already leading that outreach.

Records of Pruitt’s calendar from February through May, just disclosed to the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, show an array of meetings with lobbyists and corporate executives, including representatives of businesses that stand to benefit from the administration’s regulatory rollback.

“These calendars show in black-and-white what we already suspected: that Administrator Pruitt has an open-door policy at the EPA for polluters, the fossil fuel industry and other special interests,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight. "Instead of focusing on protecting our families and the environment from pollution, Pruitt has worked in secret to turn the EPA into an ally and tool of the corporations he’s supposed to be regulating."

By contrast, Pruitt’s predecessor under former President Barack Obama, Gina McCarthy, met more frequently with environmental groups, though she highlighted efforts to consult with electric utilities and oil companies over regulations governing power plants and drilling.

Although Pruitt’s calendar is dominated by interactions with industry representatives, it includes at least one meeting with a public health group, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and at least two sessions with environmental activists. 

“The truth is: EPA has met with over 25 consumer protection, public health and environmental groups," said agency spokesman Jahan Wilcox in an email.