EPA has released updated tallies at recurring intervals since the administration's second term began, growing from 100 actions at the administration's 100th day, to 300 at day 300, to 500 to mark the one-year anniversary on January 20, and to more than 600 at the agency's 500-day milestone in early June. The latest list spans every EPA region and nearly every program office, combining high-profile initiatives with routine regulatory work into a single accounting of agency activity.
Several themes appear repeatedly throughout the list. Cleanup and remediation remain a major focus: the agency highlights Superfund removals, hazardous waste cleanups, Brownfields redevelopment assistance, abandoned mine restoration, and emergency responses to chemical spills, wildfires, and industrial accidents. Drinking water protection also features prominently, through PFAS treatment projects, lead service line enforcement, wastewater infrastructure investments financed through WIFIA loans, and Safe Drinking Water Act oversight.
Permitting Approvals and Regulatory Execution Dominate the List
Another noticeable priority is permitting and regulatory execution. Hundreds of entries describe approvals of State Implementation Plans under the Clean Air Act, wastewater discharge permits, pesticide enforcement actions, chemical reviews under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and laboratory accreditations. While many of these activities are routine statutory responsibilities, the administration is presenting them as measurable indicators of agency performance, including specific figures such as a reported 4,300-plus reduction in the backlog of pesticide submissions under review and a 25% cut to backlogged Low Volume Exemption chemical requests.
The scorecard also reflects the administration's emphasis on reducing regulatory burden. Alongside cleanup projects and infrastructure investments are accomplishments tied to streamlining permitting, accelerating chemical reviews, and proposing a new definition of which waters fall under the Clean Water Act. The list separately points to the rescission of the 2009 endangerment finding underpinning federal greenhouse gas regulation as its single largest deregulatory action. Those items are presented alongside routine environmental projects rather than as a separate economic agenda, underscoring the administration's position that environmental protection and regulatory simplification can advance together, a framing that has not gone unchallenged: a federal appeals court this year unanimously rejected the administration's bid to abandon a 2024 air quality standard, and the agency has separately missed a statutory deadline tied to enforcing it.
What's Missing: New Climate Programs
Just as revealing is what receives comparatively little attention. Unlike EPA scorecards issued during recent administrations, the current list contains few new climate initiatives or greenhouse gas reduction programs, consistent with the broader rollback of federal climate policy since January 2025. Instead, operational measures, remediation progress, permit approvals, infrastructure delivery, emergency response, and compliance activity, dominate the agency's public accounting of success.
For businesses, the document offers less value as a tally of wins than as a guide to regulatory priorities. Companies in manufacturing, infrastructure, utilities, water treatment, remediation, and environmental compliance are likely to keep seeing an EPA focused on executing statutory programs, moving projects through permitting, and expanding core environmental infrastructure, a shift that is already reshaping how compliance teams prioritize their own reporting and software investments. Organizations expecting significant new federal climate rules, however, may find those initiatives taking a smaller role in the agency's public agenda.
The list is, ultimately, a communications product rather than an independent performance review. It mixes major environmental projects with routine administrative actions, which makes the total count less important than the pattern it reveals. Viewed that way, the scorecard suggests EPA is measuring success less by introducing new environmental mandates and more by demonstrating operational delivery, regulatory execution, and infrastructure outcomes across its existing responsibilities.
