Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler was the special guest on Wednesday at an environmental conference put on by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
He touted the agency’s rollbacks of the Waters of the United States rule and the Clean Power Plan.
Wheeler says that moving forward the EPA will put more power in the hands of the states and let state environmental agencies take the lead when it comes to implementing and enforcing federal programs. The agency is also working to better communicate environmental risks to the public.
Wheeler says the EPA will stop targeting specific industries — like oil and gas — and spend more time looking into what’s causing poor air and water quality.
“We're proving that burdensome and excessive federal regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress. Certainty and the innovation that thrives in a climate of certainty are the keys to progress,” he says.
Wheeler also announced the EPA will loan Indiana more than $400 million to help fund 23 water infrastructure projects across the state — 10 of those will be in rural areas.
“These projects are estimated to help millions of residents including rural and low-income communities.”
Construction on the water infrastructure projects is expected to create more than 3,000 jobs.
Contact Rebecca at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.
Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.
