On May 30th, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) announced it would accept public comment from June 1 – 30 as part of a review required by Governor Braun’s Executive Order 25-38, “Creating Opportunity and Reducing Over-Regulation While Protecting Our Environment.”
IDEM requested public input on regulations that may be “overly burdensome to individuals, businesses, communities, or industries” across Indiana. Instead, we invite you to join Hoosier Environmental Council in letting IDEM and Governor Braun know that weakening or repealing environmental protections is the real burden on Hoosiers’ health, wealth, and community wellbeing.
The agency’s instructions for submitting a public comment are somewhat narrow, so HEC developed this tool to help you craft a message that adheres to the agency’s directions. We’ve also offered some draft message text that you are free to use or delete. Please don’t limit yourself to our basic text – the more detail you can include about how you’ve been impacted or burdened by lack of environmental protections, the better!
If your family’s health has been affected by air or water pollution, if your community’s quality of life has been degraded by mishandling of hazardous waste, if your energy bill continues to climb because you lack access to affordable clean energy, etc., please include that in your comment to IDEM. IDEM asked that commenters include information on financial costs they’ve borne as a result of environmental “burdens,” along with “specific suggestions regarding repeal, replacement, or modification of existing environmental rules and regulations.”
You may submit a comment BEFORE JUNE 30 on one or all of the following orders:
Executive Order 25-38: Creating Opportunity and Reducing Over-Regulation While Protecting Our Environment
Executive Order 25-38 prevents enforcement of environmental regulations in Indiana that are more stringent than federal baselines, unless deemed necessary by either Indiana state law or the governor’s office. Although Indiana has very few environmental regulations more stringent than the federal government’s, attorneys in the state say the Executive Order could be used to pull back regulations on wetland protections, hazardous waste disposal, open burning, and industrial stormwater permitting. Click a link below to send IDEM a public comment in response to Executive Order 25-38 on one of those topics:
Additional Executive Orders
- EO 25-48, which authorizes the development of nuclear energy and small modular nuclear reactors in our state. COMMENT!
- EO 25-49, which forbids state agencies from developing climate actions plans or considering the social cost of greenhouse gases. COMMENT!
- EO 25-50, which supports extending the life of coal-burning power plants across Indiana. COMMENT!