EPA Workers Publicly Accuse Zeldin of Hypocrisy, Partisanship

Nearly 200 current and former EPA employees signed their names to a public letter assailing the agency’s policy moves and treatment of staff under the Trump administration.

The letter, addressed to Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin, is striking partly because so many EPA scientists, engineers, attorneys, and others publicly identified themselves as supporting it—especially at a time when many federal employees say they fear running afoul of the administration.

In addition to staff currently at the EPA, prominent signatories include Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, the former head of the EPA’s science group; Matthew Tejada, the longtime director of the agency’s environmental justice work; and Chris Frey, who served as the research and development chief under former President Joe Biden.

“If we don’t speak out about what is happening, before you know it our children will be drinking dirty water and breathing toxic air,” Nicole Cantello, a lawyer at the EPA and president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 who was one of the letter’s 324 signatories, said in an interview with Bloomberg Law.

Since taking the helm of the EPA, Zeldin has moved to execute an extensive deregulatory agenda that peels back environmental and climate protections in favor of the Trump administration’s economic agenda focused on increasing domestic fossil fuel production.

The signatories alleged the EPA has used its communication platforms to “promote misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric,” citing as an example a March statement laying out the administration’s deregulatory agenda in which Zeldin referred to “the climate change religion.”

The letter said the EPA has ignored scientific consensus to benefit polluters, turned its back on environmental justice communities, and promoted “a culture of fear, forcing staff to choose between their livelihood and well-being.”

In response, an EPA spokeswoman said on Monday that policy decisions “are a result of a process where Administrator Zeldin is briefed on the latest research and science by EPA’s career professionals,” the vast majority of whom are “consummate professionals who take pride in the work this agency does day in and day out.”

The Biden administration’s “attempts to shut down American energy and make our citizens more reliant on foreign fossil fuels resulted in worse environmental outcomes globally, billions in fresh funding to many of our nation’s adversaries at the expense of all Americans, and inflicted economic pain on those who can least afford it,” the spokeswoman said.