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Re-envisioning EPA and its work in the post-Trump era: perspectives from EPA employees

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Abstract

The Trump administration has severely curtailed the work of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has rolled back environmental protections, lost ground on addressing climate change and environmental justice, and shed large numbers of experienced staff. All of this has accelerated a longer-term decline in EPA resources, expertise, and authority. Here, we present perspectives of EPA employees and retirees on reconfiguring and strengthening the agency to address current and future environmental health problems, based on qualitative data obtained through 100 semi-structured interviews with 76 current and former EPA employees. Interviewees emphasized a number of internal and external issues, including a hyper-partisan context in which the agency operates, lack of public understanding of the extent of domestic and global environmental problems, budget shortfalls, staffing and leadership challenges, reduced scientific capacity and use of science in decision-making, insufficient attention to environmental justice, and lagging technology. We argue that reforms cannot only be expert-driven but must also come from the public, incorporating community driven solutions and focusing on remedying environmental injustice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health, William Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ, 07470, USA

    Marianne Sullivan

  2. History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Chris Sellers

  3. History Department, University of Montana, Montana, MT, USA

    Leif Fredrickson

  4. Sociology Department, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, USA

    Alissa Cordner

  5. Environmental Studies Program, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD, 20686, USA

    Ellen Kohl

  6. Silent Spring Institute, Newton, MA, 02460, USA

    Jennfer Liss Ohayon

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  1. Marianne Sullivan
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  2. Chris Sellers
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  4. Alissa Cordner
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  6. Jennfer Liss Ohayon
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Correspondence to Marianne Sullivan.

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Sullivan, M., Sellers, C., Fredrickson, L. et al. Re-envisioning EPA and its work in the post-Trump era: perspectives from EPA employees. J Public Health Pol 42, 281–297 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-021-00276-z

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