Donald Trump’s allies have fired the opening salvos of his incoming administration’s attack on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency that enforces and regulates air, soil, and water quality laws, among other crucial environmental and health issues.
In a letter from Republican House leadership to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Republicans taught their sites about the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which is intended to protect scientists and research from political interference.
Meanwhile, the incoming chairman of the Senate Environment Committee vowed at a hearing last week that he would target parts of the new PFAS regulations introduced over the past year, a top priority for Trump’s allies in the chemical and water supply sectors.
Related: Research shows that PFAS and microplastics become more toxic in combination
Republican Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer charged in his letter that the scientific integrity policy would be used by EPA scientists to “hinder the new Trump administration’s ability to implement their own executive agendas ”.
Republicans’ immediate action to shred integrity policies — which critics say were weak to begin with — shows how party officials are “bent over backwards” to help Trump attack career officials, said Jeff Ruch, a former EPA official who now works for the Public Employees. Non-profit environmental responsibility.
“They want to remove all potential obstacles,” Ruch said.
The integrity policy was introduced during Barack Obama’s administration in response to George W. Bush’s political appointees who demanded EPA researchers remove terms like “climate change” from the agency’s science and reports, and make other politically targeted changes to take.
The policy includes the EPA and other government agencies’ standards for objectivity and accuracy in scientific information, but Ruch said they were too vague under Obama. Among other problems, they did not determine how investigations would be conducted, or penalties for managers and political appointees who broke the rules.
The policy essentially directed federal agencies like the EPA to “police themselves,” Ruch said.
Trump did not attack the policies during his first administration, and his former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, an industry ally, sometimes even used them as a cover because they were so vague that he could claim to follow the rules, Ruch said.
The Biden administration promised to strengthen policies but failed to bring about many substantive changes, Ruch said. Still, Comer argued that the policy exists to counter Trump by “empowering career bureaucrats who favor one set of scientific positions to undermine politically responsible agency leaders who seek to base agency actions on differing scientific insights.”
Comer ordered Regan from the EPA to turn over reams of documents detailing the policy and its application.
Ruch said the attack points to two certainties: an intensified attack on agency scientists who oppose Trump in the second administration, and a crackdown on research produced by federal scientists.
“There will be blood,” Ruch added.
Meanwhile, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, took aim at strict PFAS limits during a recent hearing. Her comments show how years of industry efforts to cast doubt on the science used to establish PFAS regulations are being weaponized while the Republican Party is in complete control.
The EPA finalized strict new drinking water limits for some PFAS compounds earlier this year after the agency determined that virtually no level of exposure is safe for humans. It also designated two of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds as hazardous substances under the country’s Superfund laws, which could force the industry to pay to clean up the mess.
Moore Capito echoed claims from many of these polluters, some of whom are among her largest campaign donors, claiming the rules were developed based on bad science and are too expensive for many water utilities to implement. Documents show that trade groups representing water companies are already lobbying Moore Capito and the new Trump team to overturn the rules.
While questioning a former EPA official who helped develop the rules, Moore Capito accused the EPA of “inconsistent inclusion and exclusion of epidemiology and animal studies, lack of a predefined protocol, insufficient transparency.” She said not all scientists agreed on the low drinking water limits, including those on the EPA’s science advisory board.
However, many scientists who question the EPA’s process and limits receive industry funding.
Linda Birnbaum, former manager of the EPA’s water division, said there were a number of industry people within the EPA board who raised questions about the drinking water limits, but the board’s final report gave strong support for that.
The Biden administration has made tens of billions of dollars available to water utilities to implement the rules, and utilities continue to secure funding through lawsuits against chemical makers. Meanwhile, the EPA has pledged not to hold small water systems, such as those at schools, responsible for PFAS pollution.
Still, Capito Moore’s lines of attack are being used as justification for making broader changes to the rules, Birnbaum said.
“There was no major controversy surrounding the rules,” she added. “She spews industry-sponsored rules.”
