Petitions
EPA provides certain information on various types of petitions in the interest of sharing information about requests the agency has received. The agency does not control the content or timing of petitions it receives and the posting of these petitions does not indicate a decision to grant or deny them. Any regulatory action that follows as a result of a petition for rulemaking would still be shaped by the typical outreach used by the agency to gather stakeholder input, and is still subject to any applicable notice and comment requirements.
Administrative petitions for rulemaking
Under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), federal agencies must give interested persons the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule (5 U.S.C. § 553(e)). In addition, some environmental statutes provide citizens the opportunity to petition EPA for specific rulemaking actions. The program office pages linked below list petitions for rulemaking received since January 1, 2013.
National program offices
- Office of Air and Radiation: petitions | about OAR
- Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention: petitions | about OCSPP
- Office of Land and Emergency Management: petitions | about OLEM
- Office of Water: petitions | about OW
Petitions under environmental statutes
EPA is governed by many environmental statutes, such as the Clean Air Act or Safe Drinking Water Act. Within many of these laws, there are certain provisions that allow citizens to sue EPA when EPA allegedly fails to perform an act or mandatory duty required by the statute. Citizens may also file petitions for review in courts to challenge actions taken by EPA. EPA’s Office of General Counsel maintains a list, by year, containing these complaints and petitions for review received by EPA. These legal complaints are added as they are received, and many include multiple parties or petitioners.
Guidance petitions
EPA issues a variety of types of guidance documents. Many of these guidance documents are policies on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue, or an interpretation of a statute or regulation. EPA maintains a guidance portal for interested parties to search for this type of guidance. Additionally, the portal allows users to petition for modification or withdrawal of these guidance documents.
- Go to EPA's Guidance Portal.