The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning a broad overhaul of the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) by eliminating climate offices and reorganizing the Office of Air Quality, Planning and Standards (OAQPS), which sets stationary source standards for criteria pollutants and air toxics. OAQPS and the Office of Atmospheric Protection will be “reorganized and their functions realigned into 2 new offices,” according to text of a presentation given to OAR employees in a May 5 meeting.
Bracewell’s Jeff Holmstead, who ran OAR during the George W. Bush administration, told Inside EPA that the “new structure makes a lot of sense.” Holmstead stressed the importance of OAQPS, noting that the office “has not lost nearly as many employees as other parts of the agency, so hopefully they will have enough staff” with Clean Air Act expertise to execute the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.
He also noted that OAQPS is responsible for as much as 80 percent of EPA regulations.
