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Trump Administration is the Greatest Threat the EPA Has Ever Faced
The Trump administration is the greatest threat the EPA has ever faced. That's the conclusion of a report compiled by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), an international network of academics and nonprofits best known for spearheading the movement to archive public environmental data before Trump took office.
The report, which came out on June 20, is based on confidential interviews with 60 current and former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The interviews with current employees describe an EPA that is becoming unmoored from its role as a public agency and turning into something of a private fiefdom for EPA head Scott Pruitt. These conversations revealed that managers who meet with Pruitt aren't allowed to take notes, so as not to leave a paper trail that could be subject to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests. Several EPA agents who previously investigated and prosecuted environmental crimes have been reassigned to serve as Pruitt's 24/7 bodyguards.
While Pruitt has dismissed rumors that his staff have been seeking to close the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, EPA staffers said that the rumors were real and that the attempted closure was retaliation for Region 5's campaigning against Pruitt's appointment. Interviewees said that the general consensus among career EPA staff was that Pruitt's ultimate goal was not to weaken the EPA but to eliminate it entirely.
Photo by Krblokhin/iStock
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