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Zeldin Announces Approval of Class VI Primacy for West Virginia, Feb. 18, 2025

February 18, 2025 · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 0:21:14

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What happened

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced and signed approval of West Virginia’s primacy over Class VI wells at EPA headquarters on February 18, 2025, according to the EPA’s description of the event. He was joined, as the agency lists them, by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito and Congressman Riley Moore — the West Virginia delegation members Zeldin credited, as he stated it, with fighting to advance cooperative federalism on the principle that West Virginia would do an exceptional job if granted primacy.

Zeldin framed the signing as a model for the country, noting, as he stated it, that President Trump in his first term signed off on primacy for North Dakota — whose then-governor, Burgum, spoke at the event — and that EPA respects the talent at the state level and wants to partner with states across the country to implement laws like the Safe Drinking Water Act efficiently. Senior Advisor Jess Kramer, introduced as the President’s nominee to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, hosted the event, as the upload shows.

Why it matters

Class VI primacy hands a state — rather than EPA — the lead permitting role for the wells used to inject and store carbon dioxide underground. West Virginia’s approval is the Zeldin EPA’s first state-primacy grant and the template the Administrator publicly offered to other states.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: West Virginia’s Class VI primacy approval, signed by Zeldin on February 18, 2025 — the first state primacy grant of his tenure, as the event record shows. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces Approval of Class VI Primacy for West Virginia” (Feb. 18, 2025, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Administrator Zeldin, Secretary Burgum, Senator Capito, and Congressman Moore).