{"id":12334,"date":"2025-06-30T13:12:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T13:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=12334"},"modified":"2025-06-30T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T13:12:23","slug":"epa-employees-put-names-to-declaration-of-dissent-over-agency-moves-under-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=12334","title":{"rendered":"EPA employees put names to ‘declaration of dissent’ over agency moves under Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees on Monday published a declaration of dissent from the agency’s policies under the Trump administration, saying they \u201cundermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign. The latter figure includes over 70 Nobel laureates.<\/p>\n

The letter represents rare public criticism from agency employees who could face blowback for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environmental and health science. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health made a similar move earlier in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Since the Agency\u2019s founding in 1970, EPA has accomplished (its) mission by leveraging science, funding, and expert staff in service to the American people. Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration\u2019s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise,” the letter read.<\/p>\n

Agency spokespeople did not immediately respond Monday to messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really sad. This agency, that was a superhero for me in my youth, we’re not living up to our ideals under this administration. And I really want us to,\u201d said Amelia Hertzberg, an environmental protection specialist at the EPA who has been on administrative leave since February from the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, while the administration works to close down her department. <\/p>\n

Hertzberg’s work focused on the most vulnerable groups impacted by pollution: pregnant and nursing people, young children and babies, the elderly, people with preexisting and chronic health conditions and people living in communities exposed to higher levels of pollution. That wasn’t supposed to be controversial, but it’s become so in this political climate, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans should be able to drink their water and breathe their air without being poisoned. And if they aren\u2019t, then our government is failing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Berg, who also directed the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH from 2003-2011, said the dissent isn’t motivated by partisan criticism. He said the employees hope it will help the EPA get back to the mission for which it was established \u2014 which \u201conly matters if you breathe air and drink water.”<\/p>\n

The letter outlines what the EPA employees see as five main concerns: undermining public trust; ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters; reversing EPA’s progress in America’s most vulnerable communities; dismantling the Office of Research and Development; and promoting a culture of fear, forcing staff to choose between their livelihood and well-being.<\/p>\n

Under Administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA has cut funding for environmental improvements<\/a> in minority communities, vowed to roll back federal regulations that lower air pollution in national parks and tribal reservations<\/a>, wants to undo a ban on a type of asbestos<\/a> and proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. <\/p>\n

Zeldin began reorganizing the EPA\u2019s research and development office<\/a> as part of his push to slash their budget and gut their study of climate change and environmental justice. And he\u2019s seeking to roll back pollution rules that an Associated Press examination found were estimated to save 30,000 lives and $275 billion every year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to die,\u201d said Carol Greider, a Nobel laureate and professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who also signed the letter. She described last week’s East Coast heat wave<\/a> as evidence of the ways people are feeling the effects of climate change. \u201cAnd if we don\u2019t have scientists at the EPA to understand how what we do that goes into the air affects our health, more people are going to die,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Berg said the declarations of dissent from both the NIH and EPA employees are noteworthy because they represent scientists speaking out as their careers are on the line. Even non-agency employees have to consider whether the government will withdraw research funding.<\/p>\n

Greider, asked about fears of repercussions or retaliation, said she’s \u201cliving the repercussions of everything.\u201d She regularly meets with graduate students who are worried about pursuing scientific careers as labs lose funding.<\/p>\n

It’s a long-term problem if we aren’t supporting the next generation of scientists, she said: “That\u2019s decades worth of loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling<\/a> and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees on Monday published a declaration of dissent from the agency’s policies under the Trump administration, saying they \u201cundermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.\u201d More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12336,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12334\/revisions\/12336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}