Project 2025 - 13. The Environmental Protection Agency - Part 1
The author of chapter 8 of Project 2025, the EPA, is Mora Namdar, former Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs (overseeing passports and visas) appointed by Donald Trump, though she served her term under Joe Biden. Prior to taking this role she served as the President of Legal, Compliance, and Risk at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and focused, according to her private firm's website, on "U.S. national security and international human rights interests." She also served as a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, a conservative think tank. According to the Santa Barbara Independent, Namdar "[has proposed] federal regulation of the USAGM, major cuts to the agency’s funding and grant programs, direct oversight and reporting to the president and his administration, and taking down a “firewall” the USAGM has imposed to maintain journalistic integrity and independence." Currently she holds the position of interim acting top official on the Middle East at the State Department (appointed by Marco Rubio), after which she is expected to become Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran/Iraq.
Namdar begins by stating that a "conservative EPA" will need more transparency, including "open-source science" in order to "build trust" with the American public. The EPA needs to balance "justified skepticism," she says, and protect the public's health and environment in cooperation with states, not federally. She references the Biden Administration's "assault on the energy sector," which steered America away from coal, oil, and natural gas, and "[forced] the economy to rely on...renewables." She also disagrees with the removal of toxic pesticides and chemicals for agriculture.
A note: this Substack author's father was a wheat farmer in Montana who developed Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma from the use of RoundUp, an herbicide used on crops. RoundUp was later the subject of a $289 million lawsuit based on 42,000 cases of cancer linked to the toxic chemicals in the herbicide.
Namdar says that the removal of things like pesticides and pollutants have led to a reduction in jobs. However, a 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report found that clean energy jobs rates were growing more than twice that of the national average.
Namdar references the EPA as being "coopted," or a little clubby, saying that the department is "embedded with activists" and ignoring the will of Congress, leading to "preventable environmental disasters." But that's a hard argument considering the recent $1.5 billion in NOAA cuts, a 24% decrease, that "[targets] climate research and grant programs, as well as a satellite program and instruments used for climate measurement."
“NWS staff will have an impossible task to continue its current level of services,” including extreme weather warnings, the five former directors wrote. “Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.”
As recently as May 16th we've seen the result of the funding cuts, when 56 tornadoes touched down in the Midwest and Southeast, killing 27 and injuring 60. The National Weather Service office in Jackson, Kentucky was operating with reduced staffing, "eliminating 24-hour coverage, including overnight forecaster positions."
Didn't she mention something about jobs?
Namdar goes on to say that the EPA, in the past, has used "fear-based rhetoric," especially in the case of the "perceived threat of climate change." The Left uses this as a tool, she says, "mischaracterizing the state of our environment" and racking up costs. She references that in 1969 40% of communities failed to meet basic water quality standards. But she fails to mention that Donald Trump repealed Biden-era limits that would remove lead pipes associated with drinking water in many of these communities. She talks about the history of the Clean Air Act of 1970. But she fails to mention that under Biden, and in concordance with the Paris Agreement, the U.S. had plans of reducing emissions by 50% from 2010 levels by the year 2030. Donald Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement for the 2nd time in as many administrations.
ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE AND REORGANIZATION RESPONSIBILITY
Namdar calls for "cooperative federalism," (smaller and/or state government authority) in order to create "healthy, thriving communities." In so doing, she recommends reorganizing the responsibilities at the EPA, to include a new Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy who would eliminate the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights--(170 employees were laid off)--eliminate the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, restructure the Office of International and Tribal Affairs and remove its governmental liaison completely, eliminate the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education--they promote environmental literacy and increase awareness, as well as work with businesses and non-profits--and "reabsorb" the Office of Children's Health Protection and the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization into the government-run media offices.
I'll let you guess which communities are losing out in that last part.
Namdar also wants to "reset" science advisory boards in order to include a "diversity of scientific viewpoints free of...conflicts of interest." This is presumed to reference climate change, vaccines and/or COVID and other disease stats, the source of autism, 5G cell service, and any number of conspiracies touted by Robert F. Kennedy.
Namdar declares that an executive order should be drafted on Trump's first day in office, reorganizing the department, stopping grants, ending legal battles, and reviewing all employees and their personal position on the incoming administration. Trump, who has repeatedly stated he knows nothing about Project 2025, enacted said executive order on January 20th, 2025, his first day in office.
Whatta coincidence.
OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATION (OAR)
Namdar wants to severely regulate the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which define maximum allowable pollutants--including ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide--and not "over-control upwind states. In 2021 the Biden Administration set a goal of 50% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. being battery-powered by 2030. They bolstered this goal with a mandate in 2024, "essentially [requiring] automakers to sell more electric vehicles and hybrids by gradually tightening limits on tailpipe pollution." (NY Times). Trump, of course, revoked the mandate with the aforementioned executive order.
"We will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers." - Donald Trump
Namdar recommends removing the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program for being "pointless" and a burden on small businesses and companies. She says that the new President should repeal the Biden Administration's regulations for the AIM Act, which reduced the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), change vehicle emission standards, keeping costs and "choice" in mind--as in "I choose not to have a fuel efficient car?"--reconsider the "Cleaner Trucks Initiative," meant for reducing heavy-duty emissions from large commercial semi-trucks, and stop the use of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations to increase standards on airplanes.
Help me, Pete Buttigieg.
Namdar says the EPA shouldn't regulate new pollutants that have been regulated elsewhere. She says pollutant regulation should be weighed with cost-benefit analysis. And she says we should update the agency's radiation standards and reassess the Linear No-Threshold standard.
"The LNT model implies that all exposure to ionizing radiation is harmful, regardless of how low the dose is, and that the effect is cumulative over lifetime." - Wikipedia
OFFICE OF WATER (OW)
Namdar wants to reform the Office of Water's (OW) guidance on safe drinking water, and maintaining oceans, watersheds, and the aquatic ecosystems (that) protect human health." She says they're outdated. She suggests making rules about private property rights regarding water, as well as addressing the water workforce and any issues regarding applications and cybersecurity.
I'm not sure she knows that the Office of Water deals more with wildlife than property rights, but I digress...
OFFICE OF LAND AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (OLEM)
Namdar discusses the need for the OLEM to clean up "legacy pollution" (leftovers from long-ago industries) by partnering with federal and state agencies, as well as the tribes. She mentions "finding opportunities to transfer work and funding to...(the) tribes" and creating a superfund in order to do things like mine cleanup and removal of hazardous chemicals. And while I know most people want work, I wonder how this sits with folks on tribal land who didn't invite these toxins in the first place.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2…
Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.
Tremendously urgent, important health information! Thank YOU ELLIE🧐
Im Proud of all the Ukraine 🇺🇦 and the freedom fighters
Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦