EPA workers warn Trump is politicizing their work

Lee Zeldin, now administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, during his confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 16, 2025. In a public letter, employees of the Environmental Protection Agency accused the administration of engaging in unlawful partisan activity and endangering public health. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By MAXINE JOSELOW

More than 270 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency signed a letter earlier this week denouncing what they described as the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize, dismantle and sideline the main federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health.

The letter to President Donald Trump’s EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, was a remarkable rebuke of the agency’s political leadership. It followed a similar missive sent this month by more than 60 employees of the National Institutes of Health, who criticized orders they saw as illegal and unethical.

“EPA employees join in solidarity with employees across the federal government in opposing this administration’s policies, including those that undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment,” the EPA workers wrote.

Asked for comment, EPA spokesperson Carolyn Holran wrote in an email: “The Trump EPA will continue to work with states, tribes and communities to advance the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment and Administrator Zeldin’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative, which includes providing clean air, land and water for EVERY American.”

The four-page document outlined five overarching concerns with the Trump administration’s approach to the EPA. The top complaint was that decisions had been made based on a political agenda, not on science and the law.

Recent EPA news releases and newsletters have parroted some of Trump’s rhetoric on the environment, the letter said. For example, these materials have praised coal as “beautiful” and “clean.” Coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Statements from the EPA have also routinely referred to climate grants issued under the Biden administration as a “green slush fund,” when there has been no evidence they were used for illicit purposes.

“I’ve never seen this kind of partisanship, even in the first Trump administration,” said Justin Chen, an environmental engineer in the EPA’s Dallas-based Region 6 office who signed the letter. Chen emphasized that he was speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of his EPA office.

In response to these allegations, Holran said the agency was “bound by laws established by Congress.”

The letter also criticized the proposed elimination of some EPA divisions. For instance, Trump officials are considering shuttering the agency’s scientific research arm and firing as many as 1,155 of its chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists.

The EPA has already closed its environmental justice offices, which sought to help poor and minority communities that face disproportionate amounts of pollution. And since January, more than 1,400 EPA employees have decided to leave the agency through early retirement or deferred resignation programs.

In addition, the letter aired concerns about Zeldin’s plans to repeal dozens of the nation’s most significant environmental rules, including limits on pollution from cars and power plants, protections for wetlands, and the scientific finding that allows the EPA to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.

The letter was organized by Stand Up for Science, a group that planned a March rally in Washington to protest the Trump administration’s steep cuts to federally funded scientific research. Of the 278 EPA employees who signed the letter, 173 signed their names, while 105 signed anonymously for fear of retaliation.

“In Trump’s America, it is a brave thing to speak out in this way,” said Colette Delawalla, the founder and executive director of Stand Up for Science and a graduate student in psychology at Emory University.

“We have EPA employees who are signing their full names, their offices, their regions, all of that,” Delawalla continued. “These are people who feel that this is so important that they’re willing to risk their careers to make sure that this information gets out to the public.”

Concerns about politicization at the EPA have been building in recent weeks. Last week, a union representing EPA staff members accused agency leaders of violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities while they are on the job.

According to the complaint from the union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, a weekly newsletter sent by Zeldin’s office violated the law by attacking Democratic lawmakers.

“Congressional Democrats are big mad because the Trump Administration is cutting off their gravy train,” said the newsletter’s May 30 edition.

An EPA spokesperson, Brigit Hirsch, said in an email that the director of the agency’s Ethics Office, Justina Fugh, had reviewed the newsletter and determined that it complied with the Hatch Act.

“Not surprised to see The New York Times getting caught up in another wild goose chase,” Hirsch said. “Each week, EPA solicits career employees’ input while putting together the newsletter. Administrator Zeldin will never apologize for defending taxpayer dollars and listening to the will of the American people.”