In my book, The Trump Files, I wrote how the Trump administration denigrated the Environmental Protection Agency. In short I wrote:

The mega-rule that the Trump administration broke was reversing the United States’ efforts to curb climate change by cutting the country off from the international agreement that greenhouse gases need to be reduced. Trump cut the country off from the Paris Agreement. The Trump administration charged ahead in denying climate change by refusing to listen to governors, mayors, and local officials who were dealing with the effects of global warming by being up against megafires, hurricanes, floods, and droughts. The Trump administration also rolled back more than a hundred environmental rules. In a New York Times analysis based on research from Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, and other sources, many environmental rules were shown to have been reversed, revoked, or rolled back. The rules are specific and focus on the management of distinct resources such as forests, minerals, or fisheries, as well as environmental pollution control rules. The Trump administration established a pattern of undermining and rewriting the laws that protect the environment.

Hassard, Jack. The Trump Files: An Account of the Trump Administration’s Effect on American Democracy, Human Rights, Science and Public Health (p. 214). Northington-Hearn Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.

This era of growing authoritarianism and attacks on democratic norms, the role of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has never been more crucial. Yet, it was diminished at the peril of the health and well-being of earth’s environment during Trump’s time in office. As the guardian of our nation’s environmental regulations and public health safeguards, the EPA stands as a bulwark against those who would sacrifice our shared natural resources and the wellbeing of citizens in the name of unchecked corporate power and political expediency.

The history of the EPA is inextricably linked to the broader struggle to preserve and strengthen liberal democracy in America. Established in 1970 under the Nixon administration, the agency emerged from a bipartisan recognition that unfettered industrial pollution and environmental degradation posed grave threats to the public good. Over the decades, the EPA has been at the forefront of landmark legislation and landmark legal battles to protect clean air, clean water, and public lands – often in the face of fierce opposition from industry groups and their political allies.

Now, as we confront the existential challenge of climate change, and the increasing fascist movement led by Donald Trump, the EPA’s scientific expertise and regulatory authority are more vital than ever. By upholding rigorous environmental standards, promoting renewable energy, and holding polluters accountable, the agency plays a central role in the fight against global warming. In doing so, it also serves as a bulwark against the rising tide of authoritarianism, which seeks to suppress inconvenient scientific truths and prioritize short-term profits over the long-term health of our planet and our communities.

Donald Trump’s administration damaged science & Will Again

In my book, I sorted through the regulations that were rollbacked and reversed. I used data from Nadja Popovich and others who reported more than 100 rollbacks. To show this, I created the chart below.

Censoring science is not new. However, the distortion of truth was ramped up significantly by the Trump administration. The perpetuation of conspiracy theories provoked violence and acts of domestic terrorism, culminating in the January 6 attack on the Congress of the United States.

The EPA Under Authoritarianism

The EPA is the department charged with tackling the most pressing environmental and health challenges that the nation faces. Naming a head to lead the EPA is a major decision for a president to make. So who did Trump appoint as head of the EPA? Would the appointee fulfill the job responsibilities required as head of EPA? Let’s take a look.

Scott Pruitt was Trump’s choice to be the administrator of the EPA. Pruitt is a lawyer, former lobbyist, and the former attorney general of Oklahoma. He was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 52–46. When he was Oklahoma’s attorney general, he sued the EPA at least fourteen times, and in that role, he opposed abortion, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and environmental regulations. He received $250,000 from the fossil fuel industry during his campaign in Oklahoma, even though he ran unopposed.

Pruitt and his successor, Andrew Wheeler, were critiqued by a group of former EPA employees in a report they published in 2020. The report was published as a website called Save EPA (saveepaalums.info). When Biden and Harris came into office in January, 2021, the need to save the EPA lessened, and so the group went back into retirement, but it has kept the website open as a resource.

Leadership Incompetance

Pruitt was not well received by scientists (I know that is an understatement) in the EPA, and within a year he had more than fourteen separate investigations into his spending habits, conflicts of interest, extreme secrecy, and management practices. He even built a $43,000 soundproof telephone booth in his office, which violated spending laws. Really.

He set the EPA on a course to roll back rules designed to protect the nation’s environment. Although Congress passes the laws, it is accepted that individual agencies, like the EPA, determine specific actions and rules that must be taken to ensure that the laws are followed. Pruitt did more harm to the EPA than any previous administrator. Finally he resigned on July 5, 2018.

From Pruitt to Wheeler

Pruitt’s replacement was Andrew Wheeler, an attorney who worked for a law firm that represented a large coal magnate who lobbied against the Obama administration’s environmental regulations. He also was chief council to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, a climate skeptic and advocate for the fossil fuel energy industry. Wheeler was a critic of greenhouse gas emissions.

He pushed a so-called transparency rule that seriously limited research used by the EPA to make important environmental and health decisions. The rule prohibited the EPA from using studies that do not make raw data publicly available. As a result, more than sixty scientific and medical groups criticized and opposed the rule because, among other problems, researchers did not make personal and confidential information available. Also under Wheeler, the EPA decided not to fine companies for violating environmental regulations during the pandemic.

Under the Trump administration, the EPA declined to ease environmental standards for fine soot pollution (particulate matter) and weakened mercury regulation and cleanup. He declined to accept the scientific consensus on climate change, using the phrase, “What’s not completely understood is what the impact is.”

Ultimately, the fate of the EPA and the fate of American democracy are inextricably linked. By defending the agency’s independence and its mission, we defend the fundamental principles of liberal democracy – the rule of law, the role of science in policymaking, and the government’s obligation to protect the common good. In this era of democratic backsliding, the struggle to protect the EPA is a struggle to preserve the very foundations of our republic.

Summary