A new and starkly different vision for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been outlined by the Trump administration – one that involves mass staff cuts, an influx of industry lobbyists and, unusually, the promotion of artificial intelligence as a key agency priority.
A set of five “pillars” issued by new EPA administrator Lee Zeldin to guide the agency, set up under Richard Nixon in 1970 to protect US public health and the environment, does include one referencing “clean land, air and water for every American”.
But the other four priorities move into areas beyond the traditional mission of the EPA, such as bolstering “American energy dominance”, a pledge to speed up the approvals of new projects such as oil and gas drilling, a focus on ensuring “a great comeback of the auto industry” and a promise to “make the United States the Artificial Intelligence capital of the world”.
The new set of priorities come amid tumult at the EPA, where more than 1,000 members of staff have been told they face being immediately fired. Career staff who oversee the enforcement of pollution laws and hazardous waste cleanup have already been reportedly demoted, with Donald Trump stacking the agency with a new cohort of former industry lobbyists who have spent their careers attacking protections covering everything from water quality to greenhouse gas emissions to toxic chemicals.
There is a “strong desire by the American public to unleash American prosperity,” Zeldin told Breitbart. “In order to do so, we need to become energy dominant. We need to bring back American auto jobs. We have to make the United States the AI capital of the world. We need to pursue permitting reform that can allow more investment into the American economy.”
The former Republican member of Congress, who predicted Trump’s term will be “the greatest four years in American history”, did not mention the climate crisis or communities burdened by pollution in his list of priorities. He has, however renamed the agency’s Gulf of Mexico division to the Gulf of America division, following Trump’s attempt to rebrand the body of water.
“There has been talk through the years about how the world was imminently about to end because of climate change, and in the name of that threat there was a push to do some crazy things,” Zeldin told Breitbart, adding that predictions of climate change ending the world had “come and gone”.
In fact, previous projections of global heating have proved to be largely accurate, with some models even underestimating the record-breaking heat that the world is now experiencing. The north pole is currently 20C hotter than its long-term average, with recent research showing Greenland’s vast ice sheet is cracking up faster than expected, further accelerating sea level rise.
Last year was the hottest in recorded global history, with a rising toll of storms, wildfires and other climate-fueled disasters causing displacement of people and a crisis in the home insurance market across the US.
“This is just the beginning of the Trump administration’s mission to traumatize the EPA,” said Jeremy Symons, senior adviser to the Environmental Protection Network, an organization of former EPA staff. “The wealthy corporate polluters close to Trump won’t be satisfied until he tears the place down and put polluters in control.
“The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were not written to advance AI, they were put in place to protect our air and water. That seems to have fallen off the list of priorities of the Trump administration. If your child carries an inhaler, where do you see them in this agenda? If you drink water from lead pipes, where are you in this agenda?”
The focus on AI is “frankly just buzzwords” said Zealan Hoover, who was senior adviser to the EPA administrator during Joe Biden’s presidency. Hoover said communities living beside polluting industries or highways have been “completely forgotten” by the new EPA leadership and warned staff cuts will imperil the agency’s mission.
“I looked in every nook and crevice to find people to get more work done at the EPA, I’m confident in saying there is not lax capacity there,” he said. “I worry about this deregulatory spree meaning less safe drinking water, less safe air, more damaging chemical polluting incidents.
“Across the federal government, including the EPA, there is a lot of fear,” Hoover said. “Career staff are being placed on leave or fired for standing up to political appointees’ illegal activities such as accessing IT systems they aren’t cleared for, or turning off legal grant funding. It’s quite chilling to see this play out in real time.”
More staffing cuts are expected. Last week, at least 1,100 EPA staffers who joined the agency within the last year received emails warning they may be fired “immediately”.
“As a probationary/trial period employee, the agency has the right to immediately terminate you,” said the email, which was seen by the Guardian.
Molly Vaseliou, an EPA spokesperson, said: “The EPA is diligently implementing President Trump’s executive orders and associated guidance, reflecting his mandate from the American people.”
“As we work to improve efficiencies across the government, it is essential that all staff understand the law and how policy decisions may impact them. Ultimately, the goal is to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans.” She did not answer questions about whether or not firings can be expected.
Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents agency staff in the midwest, said the impacted employees are “terrified”.
“I have been here for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Cantello. “We have never, to my knowledge, seen a mass firing of probationary employees before.”
The agency as a whole is also bracing additional cuts to staff. Late last month, EPA also announced it would shutter its diversity office and placed some workers on administrative leave. Additional cuts to environmental justice staff are expected.
And last week, the office of personnel management sent a separate mass email informing federal workers that they could resign now and continue to get paid until 30 September.
“It’s a perfect storm for EPA workers with so many people who could be leaving at once,” Cantello said.
Staff at the agency are already stretched thin, with dozens responding to the Los Angeles wildfires that recently devastated Los Angeles. Those staff are unable to perform their regular duties, meaning other employees have to fill their roles.
The cuts will make it more difficult for EPA workers to fulfill their core duties, said Cantello: “We’re not talking about even doing anything new, but about core programs of enforcement, like under the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, which I believe the Trump administration say they are in favor of.”
Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator, said Zeldin’s priorities “will do lasting damage to the EPA”.
“What that means in real life is we will all be breathing dirtier air, drinking water with more toxins and pathogens, be exposed to more pesticides on food, have more plastic in rivers and the ocean and our bodies, and no relief from the already devastating impacts of climate change,” said Enck, who now leads the environmental advocacy group Beyond Plastics.
Firing probationary employees would be incompatible with a goal to protect air and water, said Cantello, who noted that 16 of her office’s roughly 60 water and air enforcement workers could be fired as a result of the purge.
During Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to cut EPA’s budget by a third and capped employees at 11,611. The agency’s workforce rebounded under Joe Biden’s administration. Today it employs about 15,000 employees, the same number it employed under Ronald Reagan’s administration when both population and GDP were lower. Last year, EPA also saw a 10% budget cut.
The EPA’s union is exploring avenues to protect probationary workers and others who may face layoffs. Under the first Trump administration, the union publicized the loss of staff to such a huge degree that they began to hire more staff within their last two years in power, Cantello said.
