When Donald Trump was inaugurated last week, there was an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule draft sitting in the regulatory review process. All it needed was for the White House to review it before the EPA released the plan for public comment.
But immediately after taking office, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing from any of the regulations that were still pending White House review. That included the EPA plan to limit per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
PFAS, which are added to everyday products to repel oil and water, are also known as "forever chemicals" because they are incredibly persistent, including in the human body. Studies show at least 97 percent of Americans have PFAS in their systems. While the health effects of these chemicals are still being researched, evidence shows that PFAS exposure is linked to cancers, childhood development problems, fertility and a wide range of other health problems.
The Claim
Citing an article published by The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., political commentator Matt Stoller said that Nancy Beck—a former chemicals industry lobbyist who is returning to her position at the EPA under Trump—walked back federal plans to ban PFAS from drinking water. Beck also served as a senior adviser to the EPA Office of Chemical Safety in the first Trump administration.
"A really ugly betrayal of the Make America Healthy Again movement, Trump official reverses plans to ban 'forever chemicals' from drinking water." Stoller wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Monday. The post has been viewed more than 153,000 times as of Tuesday.
A really ugly betrayal of the Make America Healthy Again movement, Trump official reverses plans to ban 'forever chemicals' from drinking water. pic.twitter.com/uEfuDDWwtk
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 27, 2025The Facts
There are thousands of types of PFAS. Currently, only six are regulated by the federal government. In a landmark move last year, former President Joe Biden ordered utilities to remove half a dozen PFAS that are present in the tap water of hundreds of millions of Americans.
Separately, the EPA also drafted a proposal to limit PFAS in industrial wastewater. This is the plan that the Trump administration withdrew from last week when Trump issued the executive order to freeze any new federal regulations pending review from the White House.
But while many advocates criticized the move, Kevin Minoli, who worked as a senior EPA lawyer from the Clinton through the Trump administrations, told Newsweek it's very common, "and quite frankly, to be expected," for incoming administrations to withdraw all pending White House proposals for further consideration. Minoli served as both a former ethics and deputy general counsel in his 18 years at the EPA.
"It's not particularly surprising," said Minoli, who is now a partner at the law firm Alston & Bird. "It's also not necessarily an indication of what the new administration's position is going to be on that issue moving forward. It's really just an opportunity for the new administration to take a moment to review what was pending at the White House and decide whether or not it wants to move forward with those regulations as they were, or whether they want to have changes to them."
In other words, Trump's withdrawal from those regulatory plans does not mean he is against settling limits on PFAS in industrial wastewater. In fact, Trump did take certain actions to address the "forever chemicals" during his first term.
"Following common transition procedures, most major decisions have involved a pause, including a hold on new (not yet effective) and pending (not yet published) regulations. EPA is working diligently to implement the 'Regulatory Freeze Pending Review' Presidential memo," an EPA spokesperson told Newsweek on Tuesday.
"President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship while promoting economic growth for families across the country in his first term and will continue to do so this term. The Trump EPA was also the first to ever issue a comprehensive nationwide PFAS action plan," the spokesperson continued.
Trump's pick for EPA Commissioner, Lee Zeldin, also emphasized during his confirmation hearing last week that PFAS were a "top priority" for the former congressman. During his four terms in Congress, the Long Island Republican voted in favor of legislation aimed at addressing the environmental and health risks posed by PFAS twice.
Erik Olsen, a senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Newsweek while Zeldin's appointment is a sign of hope, there is concern over the chemical industry lobbyists and lawyers who have been installed into positions immediately under the commissioner's.
"So, how much Lee Zeldin can do when he is surrounded by people under him and above him that don't want to do anything about chemical controls?" Olsen asked. "We'll see."
Because the proposal to limit PFAS in industrial wastewater had not yet been approved, the White House's recent decision to withdraw the proposal doesn't change any existing regulations—it just allows those chemical levels to continue to go unregulated.
Put another way, Americans do not have to worry about having increased exposure to PFAS as a result of the most recent executive order.
"This doesn't change the status quo for anyone," Minoli said.
But even though PFAS exposure isn't changing, it doesn't mean their presence in waste water is inconsequential, Olsen warned.
"Hundreds of millions of people get their drinking water from surface water, and unfortunately, a lot of surface water is contaminated by industrial and other discharges," he said.
Pointing to DuPont's contamination of the Ohio River Valley and Chemours' contamination of North Carolina's Cape Fear River, Olsen said: "Obviously, if you control discharges into surface waters of these extremely toxic chemicals, you will reduce downstream contamination of tap water." This is what Olsen said the EPA rule draft that the Trump White House sent back to the agency could have achieved.
The Ruling
False.
Trump did not overturn the PFAS ban on drinking water that Biden signed into law last year. He withdrew a separate draft rule from the EPA targeting those same chemicals in industrial wastewater. It is not abnormal for an incoming administration to withdraw all pending White House proposals from the previous administration for further consideration.
FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK
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