Environmental Integrity Project

Results: • Investigating and exposing EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt’s excessive travel to his home state of Oklahoma which led the EPA Office of Inspector General to initiate a systemic audit of his travel. • Securing an August 30 settlement agreement with our partner Clean Air Council and Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC, which is constructing a multi-billion dollar ethane ("cracker") processing plant near Pittsburgh. The agreement includes a requirement for fenceline monitoring so that the company detects and fixes leaks and requirements to assure that the facility's flares properly to control air pollution. The fenceline monitoring system will be the first of its kind in the state for this type of plant and will set the bar for future processing facilities in Pennsylvania. The settlement also obliges Shell to post pollution data and other information related to the settlement on an easy to navigate public website. • With partners, securing a July 3, 2017 order by the DC Court of Appeals that the EPA cannot block the oil and gas methane rule. However, EPA is challenging the decision. • Negotiating the consent decree that led to new federal standards that will reduce toxic wastewater discharges from coal-fired power plants – the largest industrial source of such pollutants – by more than 90%. A more recent consent decree led EPA to require natural gas processors to publicly disclose their toxic emissions for the first time; • Strengthening new federal requirements to find and fix methane leaks from oil and gas production sites; • Enforcement actions that prompted the closure and cleanup of the Labelle ash dump in Pennsylvania (the largest in the US) and the cleanup of leaking ash landfills at three large power plants in Maryland; • A permit challenge that helped prevent construction of the nation’s largest trash burning incinerator (a major greenhouse gas emitter) in a low income neighborhood in south Baltimore; • Securing a consent decree that cuts both greenhouse gas and toxic air pollution from the BP Whiting refinery’s flares;

Target demographics: defend environmental protections, especially in underserved communities

Geographic areas served: nationwide

Programs: Coal - EIP seeks to reduce pollution from coal fired power plants through regulation, permit review, and citizen enforcement. Projects include evaluating and publishing analyses of emissions of hazardous pollutants and greenhouse gases, wastewater discharges and groundwater contamination related to the operation of coal plants; taking part in rulemakings and permit proceedings to ensure that any new or modified coal plants meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act; working with federal and state agencies to improve monitoring and cleanup of coal plants, and to expedite retirement of the dirtiest and least efficient plants.

Oil and gas - EIP advocates for the cleanup of refineries and petrochemical plants, the improvement of monitoring of plants and hydraulic fracturing sites and the implementation of regulations to help protect nearby communities affected by these operations. EIP takes part in rulemaking, permitting and enforcement actions to ensure that refineries use only the cleanest technologies when they are expanding, accurately account for their emissions, and minimize hazardous air emissions released during routine maintenance or malfunctions.

Maryland Healthy Communities Initiative - the Maryland Healthy Communities Campaign combines research, public advocacy and legal action to reduce pollution that threatens the health of Maryland residents. Project goals include holding government agencies accountable for failure to implement environmental laws or meet deadlines; helping citizens review weak permits and take legal action to challenge major sources of pollution; and building support for environmental laws and their enforcement through targeted grassroots organizing and media outreach.