2 weeks Ago
After several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump's last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House. When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a "little bit of the EPA" left "because you can't destroy business", prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency's 50-year history.
"People are anxious and apprehensive, [and] we are preparing for the worst," said Nicole Cantello, an EPA water specialist and president of AFGE Local 704, representing agency staff in the midwest. "We've had a taste of what will happen and how we were targeted last time," she said. "By the emails and texts I'm getting, a lot of people will leave.
So many things could be thrown at us that it could destroy the EPA as we know it." Cantello said the union is already seeking to shield itself by departing its office at the agency's Washington headquarters, ditching the use of EPA computers and divorcing union dues from the federal payroll system. "We have to try to protect our people by being independent of the agency," she said.
"But folks will have to take stock over whether they can endure the attacks that are going to come their way." Such anxiety stems from the experiences of the last Trump administration, which removed a broad sweep of environmental regulations and attempted to cut the agency's budget by a third. View image in fullscreen Many of the nation's water utilities have opposed PFAS and lead limits in drinking water.
Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images Some staff in the way of this agenda faced...
Oliver Milman , Tom Perkins.
