October 30, 2024

Advancing Climate and Sustainability Solutions Within Federal Government: Tim Profeta, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

This is part of a series focusing on Nicholas Institute experts who have recently taken on temporary assignments within federal entities.

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Ahead of a sabbatical from Duke in 2022, Tim Profeta had his choice of where he wanted to go in the federal government to move U.S. climate policy forward.

Profeta had co-chaired the Nicholas Institute-facilitated Climate 21 Project, which released a “rapid-start, whole-of-government” response to climate change following the 2020 election. Within two years, dozens of the more than 150 experts who contributed were now implementing many of the project’s recommendations as part of the Biden administration.

Profeta forged connections through the project that enabled conversations about how he could best serve. Those conversations eventually led him to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Tim Profeta
Tim Profeta
(Credit: Leigh Vogel)

“To work in the White House would be great for overall strategy, but at the EPA, you really would get into the weeds of how to design certain regulations. I was kind of hungry for that,” said Profeta, a senior fellow at the Nicholas Institute and an associate professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy.

Profeta initially took a position in the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards to help design a comprehensive strategy for reducing pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants. Decarbonizing the power sector is critical, he explained, because much of the United States’ national climate strategy revolves around electrifying major sectors of the economy.

Profeta coordinated with other offices throughout the EPA to take advantage of the agency’s various regulatory authorities. Extensive coordination among experts across the agency resulted in proposed rules—rolled out in 2024—that not only set standards for greenhouse gas emissions, but also toxic metals, pollutants discharged through wastewater and the safe management of coal ash.

He also helped lead outreach on the new regulatory approach, engaging with power sector stakeholders, such as regulated utilities, state governments, electric reliability organizations and environmental justice groups. Within the federal government, he served as an ambassador of sorts to other agencies that touch the power sector.

Profeta’s work at the Nicholas Institute, where he was founding director, put him in “a very good posture” to take on his mission at the EPA. For a decade and a half, the institute has been exploring how the agency could utilize its existing authorities to regulate greenhouse gases.

“What we've developed here was a comprehensive understanding of these authorities and what their limits are,” he said. “And because of all the stakeholder convening and expertise that we brought to the table on these questions, we have a really extensive network and knowledge of the community involved in designing EPA policy for the power sector.”

As the power sector rules remained a work in progress, Profeta’s role at the agency expanded to a new task—helping lead the development of two new EPA programs funded by the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.

While the agency awaited new dedicated staff, Profeta began designing the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which will provide $27 billion in grants to mobilize financing and private capital for thousands of climate and clean energy projects. Meanwhile, Profeta led the initial design of the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program, which has awarded $5 billion to state and local governments, tribes and territories for community-driven plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution.

(The Nicholas Institute is part of a coalition that received a $421 million CPRG grant. Profeta was not involved in the selection process, nor is he part of the coalition team.)

The CPRG program in particular reflects concepts honed at the Nicholas Institute related to the role of the states in climate policy and their relationship with the federal government. Profeta and his collaborators had even proposed something similar to CPRG in recent years—federal-state programs for greenhouse gas reduction plans.

Now back at Duke, Profeta is helping states fully capture the benefits of the CPRG program through The Conveners Network, a cooperative group of nonpartisan organizations that Duke helped launch in the 2010s. The network offers states avenues for sharing insights and asking questions about the CPRG program and helps them access additional federal resources.

Profeta has continued to facilitate dialogues between EPA officials and stakeholders on the power plant rules, too. During those conversations, his experience at the agency gives him a better appreciation of the EPA side of the table.

“I now have a sensitivity to what the people at the agency need to get the rule done, what their considerations would be and what their limitations would be,” he said.