The Environmental Protection Agency announced July 18 it would continue workforce reductions through the elimination of its Office of Research and Development, which provides the independent scientific research that underpins nearly all the agency’s policies and regulations.
For decades, the science office has analyzed a multitude of risks, including the impacts of hazardous chemicals, hydraulic fracking, contamination to public water supplies, and wildfire smoke. Industrial manufacturers have historically been critical of the research by the Office of Research and Development because it frequently was used to justify stricter environmental rules.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has announced his goal to cut dozens of environmental regulations to make it cheaper and easier for industries to operate.
The American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union that represents more than 8,000 EPA workers, was very critical of the announcement. The science office “is the heart and brain of the EPA,” said Justin Chen, president of A.F.G.E. Council 238. “Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment. Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.”
The directors of national research programs under the Office of Research and Development all left the EPA in recent weeks. These scientists joined other departing career EPA employees who oversaw work on responses to environmental emergencies and exposure to chemicals and measuring contaminants in the environment.
Critics of the EPA personnel cuts predict a significant reduction in environmental regulation.