Brian Palmer is a senior environmental scientist with over 30 years’ experience performing technical analyses and developing documentation to support the development and implementation of new air quality regulations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He has served as the principal investigator and technical lead in developing and updating national emission standards for criteria and toxic air pollutants for over 20 industrial categories. Most of Brian’s regulatory development experience has focused on industries that use paints and coatings on a variety of products and substrates. He has also devoted significant time to developing and implementing greenhouse gas reporting requirements for a broad range of industries. For the state of New Mexico, he served as lead scientist in developing one of the most stringent and comprehensive rules in place at the time to reduce air emissions from the oil and natural gas production sector, which later served as a model for the 2022 nation-wide rule.

Brian’s expertise includes identifying emission sources within a source category or regulated industry, identifying and evaluating applicable control technology and pollution prevention options for that industry (including costs and potential emission reductions), collecting and interpreting emissions data and data on the effectiveness of control technologies, and developing regulatory language and the supporting documentation for new regulations. He has also developed outreach materials, guidance documents, and training materials to educate the regulated industry and state agency personnel on the requirements of different regulations and has conducted workshops using these materials.

Brian has a B.A. in biology from Bates College and an M.A. in ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his free time, he enjoys the outdoors, especially canoeing and sailing, and volunteering at two local non-profit community bicycle shops.