Scott Mason IV leads the Environmental Protection Agency’s area, covering some of the nation’s hotspots for oil and gas production and industrial pollution, including Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, the Gulf Coast and the Permian Basin.
Mason advised the authors of the EPA chapter of Project 2025 on the blueprint for the Conservative Heritage Foundation blueprint for remake agencies in sync with industry priorities.
“Mason, a local administrator, believes that all Americans should have access to clean air, land and water,” said Jenna Durant, a spokesman for Region 6. “And he ensures that EPA Region 6 is on its mission to protect the human health and the environment of 66 tribal countries, including Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma and 66.”
But for environmentalists, his appointment raises a warning bell for environmental justice efforts in the region. Mason will take on the role after serving as deputy energy secretary for his hometown of Oklahoma. Most of his career was in Oklahoma politics and higher education. He is a member of the Cherokee Nation.
Durant did not respond directly to whether Mason would work to implement Project 2025 recommendations.
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Local offices change hands
While many environmental regulations are delegated to the state, the EPA Regional Office administers programs under federal jurisdiction. The 10 regional offices are also closely involved in overseeing new permitting programs handed over to state regulators.
Under the Biden administration, regional offices have played an active role in deploying funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal programs, making environmental justice a priority and not being able to be affected by low-income regions and climate change and pollution. They targeted funds in areas that were breached in balance.
Gendaggan, executive director of the non-profit Watchdog Environmental Integrity Project, said the local office is “where rubber meets the roads.”
“Local administrators are responsible for implementing the EPA program and providing critical oversight for state environmental agencies,” she said. “Without strong leadership in these roles, people risk exposure to dangerous air and water pollution.”
In Region 6, Mason has decades of experience in disaster recovery, replacing Earthea Nance, a civil engineer and former Texas Southern University professor. Nance used her role to shed light on the region’s persistent pollution issues and promote the Biden administration’s climate and environmental justice program.
She crossed a vast area from Dallas Observe fracking emissionsTo El Paso Advertise electric school busTo Tulsa Visit Urban Farm. Nance posted on LinkedIn in January and thanked local staff.
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“To serve as a regional administrator for EPA Region 6 was a lifelong experience,” she wrote. “I would like to express my deep gratitude to the 772 civil servants from Region 6 who work together in integrity and professionalism to ensure clean air, land and water.”
Those civil servants may now be afraid of their work, Layoff loom At the agency. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has notified more than 1,100 EPA employees that they could be fired immediately, and on February 7, the EPA press conference was announced on the Environmental Justice Program. He said 168 working agents had been working. Be placed on administrative leave.
Mason grew up in the countryside of Cordell, Oklahoma, where he studied political science at the University of Oklahoma. Local news reports. He told Oklahoma City News 9 in 2018.
Mason served as EPA Director of the American Indian Environment Office in the first Trump administration. In his hometown, he led the University of Oklahoma federal program and served as a staff member for Oklahoma Governor Mary Farin.
“Mason, a local administrator, will live every day to make a difference in the lives of the people we serve by implementing the President’s agenda and the “power of great American comebacks” initiative of Zeldin, the Administrator, to make a difference in the lives of the people we serve.” I promise to work hard,” Durant said.
Mason tapped for Project 2025
Mason maintained the relatively poor through the first Trump administration and for his years in Oklahoma that followed. But as the 2024 presidential election approached, Mandy M. Gunasekara, the first Trump administration’s EPA chief of staff, tapped him to help with the EPA chapter of Project 2025. Trump was denied during the campaign, but has been seemingly accepted since taking office on January 20th.
Gunasekara thanked Mason in the EPA chapter, but he has not spoken publicly about his role. The new Trump EPA, led by Lee Zeldin, is wasting no time enacting changes to the agency.
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This document recommends eliminating environmental justice and the external Civil Rights Bureau. The EPA chapter also advises limiting which sectors should report greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate the Enforcement and Compliance Assistance Agency. The Playbook is also calling for plans to move its EPA regional offices. “Make it more accessible to the regions where they provide services and provide cost savings to the American people.”
Environmental justice was at risk
Matthew Tejada of the Natural Resources Defense Council, previously the EPA’s deputy administrator for environmental justice, said: November 2024 Blog Post If Project 2025 is implemented, the Environmental Justice community is “set to feel the losses so quickly, much deeper than anyone else.”
Region 6 encompasses the heart of the US petrochemical industry, ranging from oil fields in the Permian basin that spans New Mexico and Texas to the construction of liquefied natural gas in the Texas and the Louisiana Gulf coast. Black, Latino and Indigenous communities throughout the region have lived with associated pollution.
During the Biden administration, oil and gas production reached record highs, but the EPA tried to ameliorate these harms. The Biden administration has invested in communities that have historically been overburdened by pollution and stipulated through the so-called Justice 40 initiative (now withdrawn by Trump), with 40% of the spending of numerous federal programs being low-income. It is spent on communities and communities of color.
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Biden EPA works closely with the New Mexico Environmental Sector to track fraud methane It will discharge and punish businesses for pollution in the Permian Basin. The EPA and NMED partnered in several investigations under Secretary James Kenney, resulting in the outcome. Million-dollar agreement With oil and gas companies.
“New Mexico continues to work on ozone emissions throughout the Permian Basin and our state,” said Drew Goretzka, spokesman for NMED. “We will exercise the permit and enforcement authority.”
Goretzka said Secretary Kenny had known Mason, the district manager, for several years and is looking forward to working with him. “That’s why they’ve already spoken and are planning on future discussions,” he said.
Platforms such as The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, an online application used to identify underrepresented communities, have already been removed from the institution’s website. The end of such an initiative will have a direct impact on communities across the region, environmental activists said.
“These companies have long profited at the expense of those living in these areas, and administrations that don’t believe in environmental justice are already exacerbating the dangerous situation by removing environmental police officers from the beat. It could be,” said Duggan, EIP. “The EPA is a backstop when the state didn’t do its job to protect clean air and clean water.”
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Bipartisan support for orphan wells
In other areas, local administrator Mason could face pressure from industry representatives and Republican politicians to maintain the Biden-era program. The bipartisan infrastructure law provided unprecedented funding to plug in orphan oil and gas wells across the country. The EPA also provided funding to reduce methane emissions from marginal oil and gas wells. Republican-led states such as Oklahoma and Texas are some of the biggest beneficiaries.
Oklahoma Corporation Committee, which regulates oil and gas in the state; Reported in January The state has plugged in 1,110 wells so far with federal funds under the Infrastructure Act for a total of $23.8 million. The report said at least 20,000 abandoned wells remain statewide.
Committee Warning on January 28th After the Administration issued a suspension on federal grants and loans, the appropriate plug program “facing an uncertain future.” The committee said it expects a $122 million grant to stack wells when the suspension comes into effect.
“The agency is actively working to be in the best possible position to quickly implement the program to plug in thousands of identified orphan wells in our state. I’m here,” the statement read.
