EPA is increasingly dominated by people who have spent decades fighting to block environmental safeguards, undermining science, and lobbying for polluters.
The polluters running EPA
Literally a coal lobbyist
Andrew Wheeler
Current role: Administrator of EPA following Pruitt’s resignation
Former job: Lobbyist for Murray Energy, one of the nation’s largest coal companies, as well as other energy companies with business in front of the EPA.
Undermining chemical safety
Nancy Beck
Current role: In June 2019, Beck accepted a temporary assignment at the White House, where she may have even greater influence than in her EPA role as Deputy Assistant Administrator Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
Former job: 5 years at the main chemical industry lobbying group
Beck has many conflicts of interests.
Letting polluters off the hook
Susan Bodine
Current role: Head of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance
Former job: Lobbyist representing clients who helped to contaminate drinking water in Hoosick Falls, NY and other toxic sites, including those with hundreds of Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act violations.3
Patrick Traylor
Current role: Deputy Director of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance
Former job: Attorney for clients facing Clean Air Act violations including chemical manufacturers and coal-fired power plant owners and operators4
Attacks go beyond staffing
Aside from hiring decisions, the policies at Trump’s EPA are threating our children by slashing budgets, rolling back environmental safeguards, and putting politics over science.
Sources
- Adviser to EPA chief cited for federal banking violations, ABC News
- Trump riles Dems with pick for powerful EPA job, The Hill
- Donald Trump's pick for EPA enforcement officer was a lobbyist for superfund polluters, The Intercept
- Pruitt names lawyer who cefended Kochs Industries as a top EPA law enforcer, EcoWatch