As it transitions out, the Trump administration has pushed through two policy changes that reduce business liability and cost at polluted sites, but environmental advocates say the now codified decisions could boost public health risks and aim to have them reversed by the Biden administration.
In a Dec. 2 Federal Register notice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it will not impose cleanup site financial responsibility mandates under a 1980 federal environmental law, CERCLA, on the electric power generation, transmission and distribution sector, or on petroleum and coal products manufacturing and chemical manufacturing industries. EPA already had exempted the hard rock mining sector in 2018.