The Environmental Performance Agency (EPA) is an artist collective founded in 2017 and named in response to the ongoing rollback of Federal environmental policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Appropriating the acronym EPA, the collective’s primary goal is to shift thinking around the terms environment, performance, and agency – using artistic, social, and embodied practices to advocate for the agency of all living performers co-creating our environment, specifically through the lens of spontaneous urban plants, native or migrant. Current EPA Agents include Catherine Grau, andrea haenggi, Ellie Irons, Christopher Kennedy, and spontaneous urban plants. Learn more
Category: Uncategorized
Multispecies Care Survey featured in online exhibition
The EPA’s Multispecies Care Survey is featured in a new online exhibition organized for Broto’s Art-Climate-Science annual conference which provides an online community for artists and scientists tackling aspects of climate change. The exhibition entitled “Agency” features work by a group of international artists exploring issues of climate and environmental justice. The show’s curator Margaret LeJeune asks:
What exists at the intersection of empowerment, the climate crisis, and radical empathy? What does agency look like in a post-human world? And, can it be ascribed to non-human species, rivers and/or ecosystems?
Winter Buddies: Building a More-than-Human Community for Spring
Move into the new season with intention, as you meet and get to know a tree neighbor with the aid of human friends!
Winter Buddies: Building a More-than-Human Community for Spring is the fourth iteration of a series of protocols developed for the Multispecies Care Survey — a public engagement and data gathering initiative meant to provoke and articulate forms of environmental agency that de-center human supremacy and facilitate the co-generation of embodied, localized plant-human care practices.
Following a series of protocols developed throughout the pandemic for spring, summer, and fall 2020, this protocol invites you to immerse yourself in winter by building a community of relations and exchanges with a tree and an extended support network of friends – together exploring care practices to sloooowly emerge into spring while shaping a future of more-than-human communities. The multi-step protocol encourages a series of exchanges and multiple visits with one tree. Offering this example by EPA agent andrea haenggi and majestic oak for reference, the protocol will invite you to document your exchanges and share a report by the end of March. Visit the Multispecies Care Survey website to get started.
Winter Buddies: Building a More-than-Human Community for Spring was created in collaboration with EPA guest agent Georgia Silvera Seamans. Some of the concepts animating the process of building the protocol are explored in her article “The Risks and Rewards of Being Black in Nature.”
Multispecies Care Survey
The Environmental Performance Agency is pleased to present the Multispecies Care Survey — a public engagement and data gathering initiative meant to provoke and articulate forms of environmental agency that de-center human supremacy and facilitate the co-generation of embodied, localized plant-human care practices. This continues the EPA’s work in response to the dismantling of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the 2016-2020 presidential administration.
With this project, the collective asks for public input: In a time of pandemic crisis, how do we re-value what care means for all living beings? An online survey and series of protocols, as well as facilitated Multispecies Community Care Circles, will integrate the need for social distancing with the encouragement of new discoveries, connections and understanding of diverse nonhuman life along the margins. With the data gathered through this survey, EPA will ultimately work towards drafting a new piece of policy, The Multispecies Act. This Act aims to offer a set of embodied, actionable principles for centering spontaneous urban plant life as one means (among many) of contending with the failure of our environmental regulatory apparatus to deliver policy that protects and values life both human and non-human.
Developed for the exhibition Regeneration in Place at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn.
US EPA Activity in Pandemic Times
October 27, 2020 | EPA Cancels LGBTQ Pride and Diversity Trainings
October 22 2020 | EPA eases the permitting process for modifications made to polluting facilities
October 15, 2020 | EPA allows use of radioactive material in some road construction (The Hill)
September 23 2020 | E.P.A. Rejects Its Own Findings That a Pesticide Harms Children’s Brains (NY Times)
August 31, 2020 | EPA Relaxes Limits on Toxic Waste from Coal Power Plants
August 13, 2020 | EPA rollback on oil and gas methane emissions standards
July 30, 2020 | EPA CANCELS E&E NEWS SUBSCRIPTION
June 1, 2020 | E.P.A. CHANGES THE RULES ON HOW TO APPLY THE CLEAN WATER ACT
April 16, 2020 | MERCURY CONTROLS WEAKENED
April 2, 2020 | COAL ASH DISPOSAL RULE MOVING FORWARD
- Proposed Rule for Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities; Federal CCR Permit Program (Press Release)
- Sierra Club Petition
- EPA Virtual Public Hearing on the Proposal: Federal CCR Permit Program (April 15, 2020)
- EPA Ceases Rules on How Coal Ash Waste is Stored in US (Washington Post)
March 27, 2020 | AIR QUALITY AND AUTO EMISSION ROLLBACKS
US EPA announces changes to how gasoline will be mixed in the face of potential shortages, which will likely result in more air pollution nationally.
- Press Release: EPA Announces Steps to Protect the Availability of Gasoline during COVID-19 Pandemic
- Trump Administration, in Biggest Environmental Rollback, to Announce Auto Pollution Rules (NY Times)
- Trump to roll back Obama-era clean car rules in huge blow to climate fight (The Guardian)
March 26, 2020 | OPEN LICENSE TO POLLUTE
The US EPA announced new “guidelines” for how companies monitor environmental violations, pollution and hazardous waste waiving a requirement for reporting, and will not issue fines for violations. Former EPA Adminstrator, Gina McCarthy, called it “an open license to pollute.”
- Trump administration allows companies to break pollution laws during coronavirus pandemic (The Guardian)
- E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters (NY Times)
- “An open license to pollute”: Trump administration indefinitely suspends environmental protection laws during coronavirus pandemic (CBS News)
- The EPA appears to be using coronavirus to make huge concessions to polluters (Vox)
March 3, 2020 | ANTI-SCIENCE “TRANSPARENCY” RULE MOVING FORWARD
- EPA Announces Supplement to Science Transparency Proposed Rule (Press Release)
- The Trump Administration Is Enshrining Its Anti-Science Policy in the Midst of an Epidemic (Mother Jones)
Other Articles
- As the Nation Worries About Coronavirus, the Trump Administration is Rolling Back Environmental Rules (Mother Jones)
To see a full list of US EPA and federal environmental policy rollbacks click the button below.
Multispecies Care Survey at Wave Hill
The EPA was in residence at the Wave Hill Winter Workspace from Jan 2 – Feb. 15, 2020. The 6-week artist in residence included fieldwork research, open studios and a procession of a performative walk (by EPA agent andrea haenggi) with human and plant participants. EPA agents andrea haenggi and Catherine Grau led efforts to pilot a new project, the Multispecies Care Survey which will debut at the Old Stone House on April 18, 2020. A special thanks to all the Workspace artists in the residence: LoVid Hinkis-Lapidus, Ezra Benus, Linda Lauro-Lazin, Stephanie J.Alvarado and Kymia Ricky Kremit Nawabi-Yalkin, the Wave Hill plants, gardeners and to Jennifer McGregor and Jesse Firestone for providing a space for our artist practice to grow with love and support.
It Takes a Multispecies Community
Dearest Friends and Allies,
As 2019 comes to a close, we write to you with a sense of hope, urgency and possibility for the new year ahead. In 2019 we witnessed another round of devastating rollbacks to vital environmental policies like the Waters of the U.S. and the Clean Power Plan. The Trump administration’s attack on policies that protect the air, land and water we depend upon persists, with a total of 95 rules and regulations currently rolled back or repealed. Despite this, 2019 was also marked by the largest climate protest in history, largely led by youth. We stand in solidarity with these climate activists and look towards our weedy plant friends for wisdom and guidance as we continue to resist the policies of Andrew Wheeler (US EPA) and his cronies.
Through our own work, we’ve also celebrated successes and persevered through challenges. EPA agents presented at this year’s College Art Association, led workshops with groups at Rutgers, The New School, City Tech, at Swale, Socrates and UPenn among others. We also developed a project Suit Up, Join the Emergent Plantocene Clean Up for the exhibition, Department of Human and Natural Services at NURTUREart, curated by Mariel Villeré. The show was listed as one of the top ten of 2019 in Brooklyn, NY by Hyperallergic.
In 2020, we have a lot planned and hope you’ll join us in the weedy resistance. The year kicks off with a Winter Workspace Residency at Wavehill (Jan 2 – Feb. 15). While there, we’ll be developing a new project called the Multispecies Care Unit (MCU), a flexible gathering place to catalyze conversation, experimentation and action around current environmental policy, the ongoing climate crisis, and the 2020 elections. We’ll do this through embodied fieldwork, movement improvisation, plant ID and story circles among other tactics. The project will launch in mid-April at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. Please get in touch if you’d like to collaborate or think you may be able to host the MCU next year.
In weedy solidarity,
Ellie, Catherine, andrea, Chris and the spontaneous urban plants
2019 US EPA ROLLBACKS
CLEAN WATER REGULATIONS
Under the administration’s revised “Waters of the U.S.” rule, about 51 percent of wetlands and 18 percent of streams across the U.S. lost their federal protections.
COAL PLANT WASTE REGULATION
In 2018 the EPA proposed to gut the protections contained in the Coal Ash Disposal Rule by allowing power plants to avoid the clean up of coal ash and deviate from the rule’s clear standards for groundwater monitoring, closure, and more. The rule went into effect in 2019 and will impact the waterways of communities around the US.
CLEAN AIR REGULATIONS
In 2017 former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a notice proposing a repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which requires utilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The rule was replaced in 2019 with the “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule which weakens emissions standards. In May 2019, Administrator Andrew Wheeler also announced plans to change the way the EPA calculates health risks of air pollution, resulting in the reporting of far fewer health-related deaths.
FUEL EFFICIENCY
In 2019, the Trump administration continued the process of rolling back Obama-era fuel economy standards, which were originally set to hit an average of 54.5 miles per gallon for passenger cars and trucks by 2025.
“TRANSPARENCY” IN SCIENCE
In November the EPA issued a new draft of its proposal “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science,” which the Environmental Performance Agency solicited onbehalfof.life comments last summer. The proposal is still problematically unclear and would limit the kind of data that can be used in making legislation affecting public health and environmental justice issues.
Moss is the Boss
This past week the EPA met to engage in a movement jam to think about the wisdom and agency of moss (Bryophyta). Look out for her at the upcoming Climate Strike on December 6th in NYC.
Embodied Scientist Training: Suit Up, Join the Emergent Plantocene Clean Up
The EPA facilitated an Embodied Scientist Training on May 4th in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s unprecedented rollback of 75+ federal environmental rules and regulations and a nearby Cement Factory in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The training is a call to intimate action, offering strategies for intimate care, DIY fieldwork and speculative thinking on the resilience of spontaneous urban plants.
Emergent Plantocene Cleaning Score:
Take an EPA Suit and Suit Up!
Watch the 3 minute EPA training video
Take the EPA Clean-Up toolkit and walk to the nearby cement factory (Clean-Up site)As you walk to the Clean-Up Site: Taste the air, feel the temperature, gauge the humidity
Observe the dust. Go towards the trouble
Look to the ground. Find a spontaneous plant
It has come to balance a disturbance
Open the toolkit and use the guidebook to identify the plantPrepare yourself for the cleaning process
Protect yourself with mask and gloves
Take a moment to listen to the plant
Discover the offering it bringsTake time to carefully clean the plant
Use the tools to clear waste and particles
Gently pick, scrape, and brush
Use the cotton swabs and spray bottle to remove residual layers of dust
Both plants and humans can have their breathing compromised by the accumulation of cement dust
Collect a dust sample for the EPA archive
Label with the date (and the species if known)Return to the gallery
Display your dust sample on the shelf.
Use the provided markers to write / draw a recording of your sensation directly onto the suit.Return the EPA Suit to the rack.
Thanks for becoming a interspecies EPA Agent
OnBehalfOf.Life at SENCER
EPA Agent Chris Kennedy and collaborator Dan Phiffer prepared remarks and a presentation at the Annual Meeting of SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) this April on the use of OnBehalfOf.Life. Kennedy spoke about his adaptation of the platform to uses in the classroom at the New School University, as well as a variety of workshop formats inside galleries and museums.