In our spotlight on business report tonight, rollbacks at the EPA could be a big win for big business.

Federal Administrator Lee Zeldin today said the Environmental Protection Agency will revoke the agency's own authority to regulate greenhouse gases by rescinding an Obama-era policy known as the endangerment finding.

The EPA under the Trump administration has significantly scaled back regulations on other major environmental protections and made widespread staffing cuts.

But the agency has also put renewed emphasis on cleaning up toxic Superfund sites, a priority that was on display this week in South Jersey where Ted Goldberg checked in on the progress.

To me, clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean food, that for sure is something we can all come together.

The EPA is trying to provide clean water and clean soil around the Kiltone Superfund site in Vineland.

Congressman Jeff Van Drew toured this neighborhood, which is being treated after the former Kiltone company polluted groundwater with lead and arsenic while making pesticides around 100 years ago.

That soil then is completely removed, not returned back on site at all.

That soil is disposed of in the appropriate landfill location.

So for us really what it means is removing it from the community and not returning it.

There is overregulation sometimes within our state without a doubt and it causes harm and it can suppress the economy.

But you can't go to the opposite extreme and have no regulation.

President Trump's proposed federal budget would cut the EPA's budget in half.

And some Republicans on the Hill have proposed eliminating a Superfund tax on chemical companies used to pay for certain cleanups.

I wouldn't be supportive of it.

I believe in fiscal responsibility.

I also believe you've got to take care of people.

The people who live here and work here and have businesses here didn't bargain for this.

Naturally they want to repeal it because they never supported it from the beginning.

And you know, it's just another example of why they're not serious about the Superfund cleanup program.

Leaders in the Trump administration have said the EPA will prioritize Superfund projects, even while spending less money on Superfund overall.

Region Administrator Michael Martucci says it's possible if the EPA is smarter about how it spends money.

What it's meant is focusing our resources on places like this, you know, where we can get to work, we can put literally shovels in the ground, we can begin to remediate environmental concerns and continue to make progress on them.

So some of the things that the EPA has taken a step away from is our non-core and statutory work.

We're worried about everything from pronouns to anything that you can name other than the core mission.

The core mission of the EPA is going to continue and it's going to thrive under the current administration because we're going to focus on the things that need to be done.

Congressman Frank Pallone is skeptical that Superfund work can accelerate with a smaller budget.

If you get rid of the tax and you cut the appropriations, you're probably going to have almost no sites cleaned up.

Anybody who's involved in government at any level knows if you don't have any money, it really severely limits what you can do, right?

New Jersey has 115 Superfund sites, more than any other state.

The Superfund tax, which helps to pay for cleanup, returned in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which Van Drew and Pallone both voted for.

It was permanently reinstated in the Inflation Reduction Act, which Pallone voted for and Van Drew voted against.

You can't do those things, Ted, if you have less money.

And clearly the cases are very obvious with Superfund.

Many of these sites cost a lot of money to clean up.

And if you cut back on the funding that's available or cut it in half, you're going to do half as many cleanups.

If you're reducing staff and reducing funding for sort of each region, because everybody's got Superfund sites, I don't know how that helps anybody.

Michelle Langeau works with New York, New Jersey Baykeeper and frequently works with people involved in Superfund cleanups.

She says the mass layoffs at the EPA have made their work harder.

These are folks who know the cities that are around the Superfund site.

They're the ones hosting the community meetings and determining where those community meetings need to be held and in what languages information needs to be shared so that it reaches the widest number of residents.

The EPA says more than 80 sites have been remediated in Vineland around the former Kiltone And they expect work to continue for at least five more years, even as their budget remains uncertain.

In Vineland, I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

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