FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Contact:
Tim Whitehouse | (240) 247-0299 | [email protected]
Kevin Bell | (202) 946-3642
Groups Appeal EPA’s Refusal to Release Impact Assessments for High-Impact Artificial Intelligence Tools
PEER and FIG Challenge Secrecy Surrounding EPA’s Growing Use of AI
Washington, DC — Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Free Information Group (FIG) are appealing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) refusal to release its Final Impact Assessments for high-impact artificial intelligence (AI) tools deployed by the agency, after EPA declined to make these documents and others related to its use of AI available as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
On March 5, 2026, PEER and FIG filed a FOIA request seeking a suite of records relating to EPA’s chemicals assessments and the use of AI, including the AI screening tools used for seven chemicals. In its response, EPA stated that it found only two types of records responsive to this expansive FOIA request: its 2025 AI Use Case Inventory and its “Final Impact assessments for high-impact EPA AI tools,” which it withheld as part of a deliberative process privilege.
“The public has a fundamental right to know the impact of high-impact AI tools being used by government agencies,” said PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse. “These tools are paid for by the American taxpayers, and they affect our health, safety, and rights.”
Whitehouse notes that under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-25-21, federal agencies are required to complete an impact assessment before deploying any AI tools classified as “high-impact.” The OMB memorandum states that AI is considered “high-impact” when its output serves as a principal basis for decisions with legal, material, or significant effects on public health, safety, or rights.
In its FOIA response, EPA further stated that it had no responsive records related to 13 other categories of documents in the FOIA covering general AI rules and its usage of AI screening tools on the seven chemicals.
In their appeal, PEER and FIG document EPA’s numerous public statements that the agency is growing its use of AI to improve administrative efficiency and testing the use of AI on chemical safety assessments. To date, EPA has not provided detailed information explaining how its AI systems are configured, what safeguards are in place, or whether such tools are being used in regulatory decision-making.
“The United States should not be governed by a black box,” said FIG Partner Kevin Bell. “These tools are agency policy written in code, and Americans have a right to know how these tools work, what they were tested on, and what their limitations are.”
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Read the PEER-FIG appeal letter
Read EPA’s response to PEER-FIG FOIA
Examine OMB’s Document M-25-21
Revisit an earlier PEER-FIG press release on this FOIA
Learn about EPA’s vague plan for adopting AI
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local and tribal employees.