On March 28, 2022, EPA released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. According to the accompanying news release, the Strategic Plan “provides a roadmap to achieve EPA’s and the Biden-Harris Administration’s environmental priorities over the next four years.”
According to its Overview, the Strategic Plan adds the foundational principle to “advance justice and equity” to EPA’s historical principles of “follow the science, follow the law, and be transparent.”
Regulatory Objectives
The Overview provides information that may be of use to the regulated community. Some of the regulatory objectives include:
- Promulgate final rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles; electric utility generating units; and the oil and gas industry.
- Reduce ozone season emissions of nitrogen oxides from electric power generation sources by 21% from the 2019 baseline of 390,354 tons.
Enforcement Objectives
The Overview identifies three significant enforcement-related objectives:
- Reduce to not more than 93 the number of open civil judicial cases more than 2.5 years old without a complaint filed.
- Send 75% of EPA inspection reports to facilities within 70 days of inspection.
- Conduct 55% of annual EPA inspections at facilities that affect communities with potential environmental justice concerns.
Facilities that EPA views as affecting “communities with potential environmental justice concerns” may be significantly more likely to be the subject of an EPA annual inspection.
To see the news release https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-releases-final-strategic-plan-protect-public-health-address-climate-change-and
For links to the Overview and the Strategic Plan https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan