Interest in EPA’s brownfields program is growing, as House Republicans look to use the dilapidated sites to advance the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, announced he will hold a hearing this week to “hear local and national perspectives on the program,” according to a news release.
It’s the second hearing House members have held this year focused on brownfields, which are often abandoned industrial sites currently or previously contaminated with dangerous pollutants that have been targeted for redevelopment. EPA’s brownfields grants go to companies or local governments to turn the site of a previous steel mill into a community center or park.
The House Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee held a hearing in March on how EPA’s program — which offers private-public partnership grants for technical assistance at the sites — can be better geared toward data centers, semiconductor manufacturing and AI infrastructure.
