Former EPA Administrator Michael Regan addresses students at Duke University on Oct. 23, 2025. (Photo: Christine Zhu/NC Newsline)
Two former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leaders joined students and community members at Duke University to speak on advancing environmental goals in the face of federal resistance to climate change regulation.
At an event celebrating the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability’s 20th anniversary on Thursday, former EPA Administrators William Reilly and Michael Regan discussed finding climate solutions.
Regan, who is now a distinguished fellow at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, served from 2021 to 2024 under former President Joe Biden, who signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. This measure encouraged private sector, public sector, local and state governments, as well as households to invest in clean energy, electric vehicle tax credits and decarbonization efforts.
As a North Carolinian who also formerly served as secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, Regan emphasized the importance of working with state leaders.
Regan said 70% of the EPA’s budget is passed through to the states. As a result, the agency is closely tied to state environmental departments, because the officials work together on strategic planning, setting priorities and measuring results.
“Most of those individuals at the state levels are the ones where the rubber meets the road, and they’re the ones that are having conversations with the private sector, with local communities, with environmental justice communities,” he said.
Former President George H. W. Bush appointed Reilly, who led the EPA from 1989 to 1993. Reilly now serves as chair of the Nicholas Institute’s advisory board.
Notably, Bush signed the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, a major revision to the original 1970 law. The amendments targeted three major threats to the environment and public health: acid rain, urban air pollution and toxic air emissions, according to the EPA’s website.
In 1990, perception among members of Congress was that the EPA was “excessively oriented” toward regulation, Reilly said.
While the agency was initially popular during its inception in 1970, public support waned under the Reagan administration, which imposed budget cuts. EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch resigned in 1983 because of an administrative scandal and another EPA official, Rita Lavelle, was convicted of lying to Congress.
To combat this and restore faith, the agency needed a new perspective, he said. The Bush administration worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to develop the clean air amendments and incorporate new ideas.
“We need to be more resourceful, more open to those kinds of approaches which have not really been tried before,” Reilly said.
A Duke student asked the pair how EPA leaders can continue to carry out their mission effectively while working under more narrow legal documents, such as West Virginia v. EPA. In that 2022 ruling, the Supreme Court limited the agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions in the power sector, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Regan said these Supreme Court cases force the EPA to be more creative in terms of protecting public health, and place restrictions on the level of authority the agency can give to regulators.
“We don’t need a ton of new regulations,” Regan said. “We need smart regulations that give flexibility so that markets and technologies can achieve those environmental goals.”
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