EPA Deputy Administrator McIntosh: Regulatory Overhaul in the Works

UPDATED: 4/16/25 7:27 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a sweeping rebuke of Biden-era policies, a top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said April 15 the agency plans to reform all regulations, including several that directly impact the chemical sector.

Chad McIntosh, EPA's acting deputy administrator, discussed the agency’s plans during his keynote address at the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) annual GlobalChem conference in Washington, D.C. 

McIntosh rattled off more than a dozen rules the agency will overhaul, including easing regulations on coal-fired power plants, air toxins, greenhouse gas reporting rules and particulate matter limits.

“We’re working very hard on implementing and reforming all of our regulations; they need to be based not just on statute but the plain-English meaning of the statute,” said McIntosh, a Trump appointee who works under Administrator Lee Zeldin. 

The agency will defer to courts to interpret laws, McIntosh said. This follows the Supreme Court's 2024 decision overturning the "Chevron deference" doctrine, which had previously granted federal agencies broader authority to interpret the laws they administer.

McIntosh described a lean staff of about 20 appointees who took over the EPA and began implementing changes one week into the new administration. EPA has been working with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to further streamline the agency, McIntosh said.

He did not address DOGE cuts to the agency but said to expect a reorganized EPA in the next two months. 

Shari Barash, who leads EPA's new chemicals division, said her department has had one resignation related to the federal buyout offer and had not heard any further news about cuts to her division. Overall, federal workers are anxiously awaiting word on additional cuts, she said. 

DOGE has been involved in the agency's IT upgrades, according to McIntosh. He noted that the pesticide approval law, or FIFRA, has a backlog of about 14,000 applications. The DOGE team responded by helping the agency upgrade its IT systems, including the implementation of artificial intelligence, to process the applications faster, said McIntosh. 

The deputy administrator praised President Trump and his appointees for cutting wasteful spending and streamlining regulations while criticizing the Biden administration's regulatory agenda, particularly its environmental justice initiatives.

“The agency … spent so much time and money worried about those areas, which actually have nothing to do with environmental protection,” said McIntosh.

EPA is eliminating environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion programs — instead implementing policies that “apply to everybody regardless of who they are or what they are,” McIntosh said.

The move impacts the chemical industry, as many of the EPA’s environmental justice initiatives included regulations targeting air pollution along the Gulf Coast region near predominantly Black communities. 

The agency is executing these policy changes with a remake of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, replacing scientists who McIntosh said were “ideologues dedicated to the left environmental culture.”

He added that the agency is prioritizing the Coal Ash Program that expedites state permit reviews and updates coal ash regulations.

“We’re no longer targeting those areas to try and shut down the coal plants,” he said. 

McIntosh served under the first Trump administration as EPA administrator for Tribal and International Affairs. He previously managed global and environmental policy at the Ford Motor Co. and served as natural resources and policy adviser to former Michigan Gov. John Engler.